Kurds commemorate 19th anniversary of chemical attack

Traffic stopped and people stood still in the streets despite rain for a period of silence today as Kurds in northern Iraq commemorated the anniversary of a 1988 chemical weapons attack that killed an estimated 5,600 people.

Hundreds of victims’ relatives and local officials also gathered in the city hall in Halabja, 150 miles north-east of Baghdad, and lit 19 candles to symbolise the 19 years since the massacre took place.