When I woke up, it was still dark outside. Outside my window, the lights of Erbil’s central “golden zone” still twinkled. I grabbed my bag, packed with a change of clothes and the tools of my trade, and went downstairs to meet the friend and fellow journalist I would be traveling with today.

Our destination was Halabja, a small city near the Iranian border. Halabja is known for its excellent pomegranates, but it is best known as the site of a devastating 1988 chemical attack that killed thousands of Kurdish civilians, and injured thousands more. It was part of al anfal, a military campaign designed by Saddam Hussein and his generals to wipe out Kurdish militants by wiping out Kurdish towns across the countryside.

The attack on Halabja is an identity-defining milestone in Kurdish history,

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