IRAQ. Halabja region, PUK controlled part of Northern Iraqi Kurdistan. November, 2002. PUK and Kurdish Tailer Party "Peshmerga" forces facing an area controlled by Islamic hardliner al-Anzar forces, al-Quaida alleged ally. Halabja was the site of Saddam HUSSEIN's 1988 Anfal gas attacks on Kurds killing more than 5000 people. The three mainly Kurdish northern provinces of Iraq have been independently ruled by the Kurdish KDP (Kurdish Democratic Party) and the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan).