'A Bombardment Between Two Rivers'
CPT-IK and our partners at Shar Press are pleased to present a new collaborative documentary, 'A Bombardment Between Two Rivers'. The film interviews victims and family members impacted by an Iranian bombardment that left 21 people dead in Qaladze, Iraqi Kurdistan, on August 6, 1994.
‘A BOMBARDMENT BETWEEN TWO RIVERS’
On the morning of August 6, 1994, an Iranian artillery position launched a bombardment towards Qaladze, east of Iraqi Kurdistan. Historically, the town was no stranger to destruction. Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government levelled Qaladze in 1974 with airstrikes and napalm. The attack killed over 350 people and made the city one of the first Kurdish civilian populations targeted by the Ba'athist regime.
By 1994, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were locked in a bloody civil war, vying for the control of Iraqi Kurdistan. Early in the war, the KDP received assistance from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and could launch attacks from Iranian territory. With Qaladze firmly in PUK territory, the IRGC bombarded the city to support the KPD.
Qaladze is only 28 km from the Iranian frontier. It took just under two minutes for one of the flying shells to cover this distance and reach the courtyard of Kak Hassan Ali's house in the city. Family members and friends had gathered in the yard to receive water from the house's well.
The 'August 6' Massacre came to CPT's attention as part of an ongoing project collecting data on civilian victims of cross-border bombardments in northern Iraq dating back to 1990. Our goal is that all victims of cross-border storms receive proper recognition from Kurdish and Iraqi authorities and the compensation they deserve, including the survivors and families of victims from Qaladze.
Btothers, Kak Hasan and Kak Hussein, at Kak Hasan’s house in Qaladze, July 2023 (CPT-IK)