Anniversary of the chemical attack on Zardeh

Culture of origin: Yarsan · Historical

Holiday sources: Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq)

On the morning of 31 Tir 1367 (22 July 1988), after Iran had accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598, the Iraqi Baath army's air force dropped bombs carrying mustard and nerve gas on Zardeh, a Yarsan village of about 1,700 people in Dalahoo, Kermanshah province. People from the village and from other villages had gathered for a religious celebration at the shrines of Dawud and Baba Yadegar, holy places of the Yarsan, so many pilgrims were among the victims. Between 270 and 276 people were killed that day (275 by Persian Wikipedia's count), and 830 to 1,146 were injured or poisoned by the gas; some of the injured died later. One bomb hit the village's spring, poisoning those who drank from it, and the fields and orchards were contaminated. Survivors still suffer from cancers, skin and breathing diseases, miscarriages and birth defects. The Yarsan association Dalahoo marks the anniversary every year.