The Halabja massacre, also known as the Halabja chemical attack, was a massacre of Kurdish people that took place on 16 March 1988 that was led by Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict in the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War in Halabja, Iraq. The attack was part of the Anfal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as part of the Iraqi Army's attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the capture of the town by the Iranian Army. A United Nations (UN) medical investigation concluded that mustard gas was used in the attack, along with unidentified nerve agents. The majority of evidence suggests that the chemical attack was an Iraqi assault against Iranian forces, pro-Iranian Kurdish forces, and the residents of Halabja.
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), is an Iranian dissident organization that was previously armed but has now transitioned primarily into a political advocacy group. Its headquarters are currently in Albania. The group's ideology is rooted in "Islam with revolutionary Marxism", but after the Iranian Revolution became about overthrowing the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and installing its own government. At one point the MEK was Iran's "largest and most active armed dissident group", and it is still sometimes presented by Western political backers as a major Iranian opposition group, but it is also deeply unpopular today within Iran, largely due to its siding with Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War.
Maryam Rajavi is an Iranian dissident politician and the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an organization advocating the overthrow of the Iranian government, and president-elect of its National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). She is married to Massoud Rajavi, who is the co-leader of MEK.
The Amiriyah shelter bombing was an aerial bombing attack that killed at least 408 civilians on 13 February 1991 during the Gulf War, when an air-raid shelter in the Amiriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, was destroyed by the U.S. Air Force with two GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided "smart bombs". Human Rights Watch characterised the bombing as a war crime.
Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City was a camp in Iraq's Diyala Governorate, having the character of a small city with all basic infrastructure, and headquarters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The population used to be around 3,400 in 2012, but in 2013 nearly all were relocated to Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport after pressure by then-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's office.
Al Khalis District, Khalis or Al Khales is one of the six districts of Diyala Governorate in Iraq. Its main population center is the village of the same name. The village of Al Khalis is roughly 15 kilometers (9 mi) north of Baqubah.
The Iran–PJAK conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which began in 2004. The group has carried out numerous attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and provinces of Western Iran. PJAK is closely affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the primary opponent of the Republic of Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.
The 2008 Abu Kamal raid was an attack carried out by helicopter-borne CIA paramilitary officers from Special Activities Division and United States Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command inside Syrian territory on October 26, 2008. The Syrian government called the event a "criminal and terrorist" attack on its sovereignty, alleging all of the reported eight fatalities were civilians. An unnamed U.S. military source, however, alleges that the target was a network of foreign fighters who planned to travel through Syria to join the Iraqi insurgency against the United States-led Coalition in Iraq and the Iraqi government.
Camp Liberty is a former installation of the United States Department of Defense in Baghdad, Iraq. The installation was used from 2012 to September 2016 to house members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, who had been forcibly evicted from Camp Ashraf.
Events in the year 2011 in Iraq.
Martin Kobler is a German former career diplomat who served as German Ambassador to Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan. He served as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya from 4 November 2015 to 22 June 2017. Previously, he had served as Special Representative and Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) from June 2013 to 2015. In this capacity, he headed more than 20,000 peacekeepers in the country.
The Darayya massacre was a massacre carried out by Syrian government forces of Bashar al-Assad that occurred between 20 and 25 August 2012 in the town of Darayya in the Rif Dimashq province of Syria, during the Syrian civil war.
Abdolreza Rajabi was a Kurdish Iranian, born in Mahidasht District, west of the Kermanshah Province. He died under suspicious circumstances in Reja'i Shahr Prison where he was being held as a political prisoner. His was one of at least seven deaths in custody in as many years that has raised questions about the state of human rights in Iran.
The 2013 Camp Ashraf massacre was a suspected terrorist attack on the Camp Ashraf refugee camp of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), leaving 52 PMOI members dead and 7 missing. Iraqi security forces were believed to be responsible for the assault, with guidance and support from the Iranian government.
The siege of Amirli was a siege of the predominantly Shi'ite Turkmen town of Amirli in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the War in Iraq. The town was besieged by ISIL forces for 50 days from June 2014, lacking access to food, electricity, and water. Most of the residents are Shia Turkmen, who had organized local self-defense militias to fight against ISIL. On August 31, the Iraqi military reportedly broke the siege and entered the town. It has been described as "Iraq's biggest victory against ISIS", as of September 2014.
On 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine countries from West Asia and North Africa, launched an intervention in Yemen at the request of Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had been ousted from the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 by Houthi insurgents during the Yemeni Civil War. Efforts by the United Nations to facilitate a power sharing arrangement under a new transitional government collapsed, leading to escalating conflict between government forces, Houthi rebels, and other armed groups, which culminated in Hadi fleeing to Saudi Arabia shortly before it began military operations in the country.
Colonel Paul R. Shaffer (1930–1975) was a United States military aide to Iran who served as an air force pilot in both Korea and Vietnam. In 1975, he was assassinated along with Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner. Vahid Afrakhteh, a founding member of Peykar, confessed to the killing and later was executed. Nevertheless, some sources have said the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) the group which Vahid Afrakhteh and Peykar tried to eliminate was responsible.
The 2020 Camp Taji attacks were rocket attacks that took place on 11 March and 14 March 2020, targeting Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, in Baghdad Governorate, which hosts Coalition and United States Forces in Iraq.
Camp Ashraf 3 is the current headquarters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Manëz, Durrës County, Albania. The camp is located in an area between the Tirana and the coastal city of Durrës. In 2013, after the closure of Camp Liberty, members of the Mojahedin organization were transferred to European countries, mostly to Albania for humanitarian purposes.
Iraq 
