Ceremonies took place in northern Iraq's Kurdistan region Tuesday to mark the 22nd anniversary of a deadly chemical attack on the town of Halabja.
Participants observed five minutes of silence in memory of 5,000 Kurds killed during a poison gas attack by forces of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The 1988 attack is one of the most infamous massacres of Saddam's anti-Kurd "Anfal" campaign.
Iraqi Kurds have sought reparations from the post-Saddam government in Baghdad, as well as help for the thousands of people who have suffered after-effects of the attack.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq said the anniversary is also a time to "heal, seek closure and look forward."
In January, the Iraqi government executed Saddam Hussein's cousin, Hassan al-Majid, for the poison gas attack and other crimes against humanity. He was widely known as "Chemical Ali."
Iraq's Kurds Mark Anniversary of Poison Gas Attack
![Kurdish girls dressed in the colors of their national flag stand behind graves of victims of the 1988 gas attacks during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the attacks in the Iraqi northern Kurdish town of Halabja, 16 Mar 2010](https://gdb.voanews.com/1FE31D0D-8D82-4BDF-91C6-0D909B12149F_w250_r1_s.jpg)