Mother, son reunite 31 years after Iraqi massacre

HALABJA, Iraq

A Kurdish woman from northern Iraq reunited with her son more than three decades after the pair were separated following a chemical attack on Halabja of Sulaymaniyah province in 1988.

The first chemical attack in the Middle East, the Halabja massacre, known as the largest chemical weapons attack in history directed against a civilian-populated area, was against Kurds who opposed Saddam Hussein's regime.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam commanded Iraqi forces in northern Iraq to use chemical weapons against the Kurdish population, leading to 5,000 deaths, including babies, children, women and the elderly, while leaving more than 7,000 people wounded.

The story of Maliha Muhammed Rashid and her son Khalil Muhammed Salih is one of many tragic stories that continue to unfold more than 31 years since the massacre.

Saddam’s warplanes targeted Halabja with a chemical attack on March 16, 1988. At the time, Salih was a 9-month-old baby.

The family was taken to Kermanshah, Iran for treatment after the attack.

But at that time, Kermanshah was targeted by an airstrike during the Iran-Iraq War. Rashid lost her baby during the chaos.

Rashid said she looked for her son in Iraqi refugee camps and hospitals but it was all in vain.

She returned to Halabja and applied to the Sulaymaniyah court and her son was reported dead in November 1988.

Adopted in Iran

Salih’s adoptive mother, Masuma Mahdipour, told Anadolu Agency the boy was spotted by her husband, Manoshahr Ismaili, at a hospital where he worked and he brought him to Qom to adopt him.

Mahdipour, who registered Salih as Muhammed Emin, said he told him the truth as he was preparing for marriage after he graduated from law school.

The revelation started Salih, 24 at the time, on a long quest to find his family.

He traveled from Tehran to Kermanshah where he collected data on lost children during that time.

He thought he might be of children lost in Halabja and headed to Sulaymaniyah.

But things changed when Salih told his story to Lokman Abdulkadir, head of the Association of Victims of Chemical Attacks in Halabja, as a guest on a local television show.

Reunion

Rashid immediately recognized him when she saw him on the screen.

"I wanted to see him even for a minute. When we first met, we hugged each other and started to cry," she told Anadolu Agency.

"When Halil appeared on the television, I recognized him and said, 'This is my son.’ I immediately called Lokman Abdulkadir and told him that he should take me to him. And I said that I had no proof but that he was my son, I just knew he is my son," she said.

The Halabja local court ordered a DNA test and the results in Tehran, which proved kinship of the pair, was presented to the Halabja court.

But the court refused to accept the results because it wanted the test to be conducted in England.

The family applied to the court for the test to be carried out in Erbil. And once again, it proved Salih was Rashid's son.

Thereupon, the Halabja court confirmed that Khalil Muhammed Salih is the son of Maliha Muhammed Rashid.

Salih reclaimed his Iraqi identity in a ceremony on Dec. 17 in Halabja with participation of his Iranian family. Salih, who works as a forensic expert, returned to Iran.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat