The incident, which has been officially defined by Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal as a genocidal massacre against the Kurdish people in Iraq, was the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history.
Ovaj incident, kojeg je Irački kriminalni sud proglasio genocidom protiv Kurda u Iraku, i dan-danas je najveći napad kemijskim oružjem usmjeren protiv civilnog područja u povijesti.