In pictures: Halabja residents remember those who died in gas attacks

An Iraqi Kurd woman holds an image of loved ones as she visits in a grave yard for the victims of a gas attack.

Iraqi Kurds visit at a monument for the victims who were killed in a gas attack by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 1988 during 26th anniversary of the attack in the Kurdish town of Halabja.

An Iraqi Kurd woman visits the grave of Ahmad Qader Ahmad at a grave yard for the victims of a gas attack.

Iraqi Kurds lay flowers at the foot of a monument built in memory of the Iraqi Kurd victims who were killed in a gas attack.

An Iraqi Kurd family visits a grave yard for the victims of a gas attack by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 1988.

An Iraqi Kurd family holds images of loved ones as they visit in a grave yard for the victims of a gas attack by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 1988.

An Iraqi Kurd man visit at a grave yard and a monument for the victims who were killed in a gas attack by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Twenty-six years ago Saddam Hussein committed the world’s worst chemical weapons attack on a civilian population in Kurdish northern Iraq.

On March 16, 1988, government forces attacked the town near the Iranian border after it was taken over by Kurdish rebels towards the end of the Iran-Iraq war.

An estimated 5,000 people were killed when Iraqi Air Force jets dropped poison gas on the town. Many others died later of cancer and related illnesses.

This week the residents of Halabja remembered those who perished. Photos by Safin Hamed / AFP Photo March 17