ABSTRACT
Among recent chemical wars, the poisonous gas used in the Iran-Iraq conflict was perhaps the most important because of its large-scale use and severe pathological effect on human victims. On the dawn of September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran by crossing the 644-km wide border in large force from three directions in a sudden attack. Iran never expected such an attack and was completely surprised and unguarded. In 1980, Iraq started chemical weapons research and manufacturing, but it did not use poisonous gas until the war started to deteriorate. Iraq used mustard gas and nerve gas extensively. Nerve gas is much more toxic than mustard gas, but mustard gas caused more damage. Dr. Gerhard Freilinger of Vienna, Austria, was invited to treat Iranian wounded soldiers exposed to mustard gas. At the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, there was a tragic episode. The Kurdish ethnic group now without its own country immigrated to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
