In article ,
Scott MacEachern wrote:

On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:57:27 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:

The attack at Halabja was fighters dropping 250 pound chemical bombs.

That's the common report we've gotten from actual eyewitnesses.

I would be interested in knowing the source of that actual report,
then. (No dissing in this case, I would like to know where it comes
from, and to be able to judge for myself whether it is definitive.)

This has a decent description:
("The March 16 Chemical Attack on Halabja")
Specific mention of attack aircraft, not copters.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ANFAL3.htm

This one mentions MiG-26s, but they probably meant MiG-23 or -27.
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/press/0710chem.htm

I *did* see some suggestion that at least part of the Halabja chemical
attack was by rockets and artillery, and that the jets were just
dropping cluster bombs and regular minutions. But Iraq did also use 250
kg mustard gas bombs versus Iranian towns, so that's in the mix, too.

This is after digging through a *lot* of descriptions of the Halabja
attack over the last couple of days, and trying to remember what I read
yesterday. And I still can't find anything like an eyewitness
description that mentions helicopters used in the attack itself - just
one recon chopper taking photos, or dropping pieces of paper to judge
wind speed.

I've found references to some copters being used in other places to
deliver chemical weapons, but most of them were apparently white
phosphorus rockets fired to keep people in place for artillery and
fighter bombardments with chemicals. Helicopters were having a hard
time in the Kurdish areas in 1988, due to ground fire, so delivering
chemicals by copter would have been pretty risky compared to dropping
bombs from jets or firing off artillery/rockets, and low-level spraying
would have been just plain nuts.

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.