After three DNA tests and three decades, missing son reunites with family in Halabja

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Khalil Salih was separated from his family after Saddam Hussein's genocidal bombardment of Halabja in 1988. After undertaking three DNA examinations, he reunited with his family during a ceremony in his hometown.

On March 16, 1988, airplanes from the Saddam Hussein regime indiscriminately used chemical weapons on the city of Halabja, 12 kilometers from the Iranian border.

Immediately in the attack, 5,000 people died and as many as 10,000 were injured. In the panic and ensuing exodus to Iran, primarily over the mountains on the Iraq-Iran border, many families became separated. 

Khalil was just nine months old when he was separated from his mother at an Iranian hospital on March 18, 1988, the same day they arrived in the Iranian Kurdish city of Kermanshah after fleeing from Halabja. He was subsequently taken in by a family in Shiraz, a city in south-central Iran.

Khalil, whose name was changed to Mohammed Amin by his foster family in Iran, is 31 years old now. He works as a coroner, according to Luqman Abdulqadir, the head of Halabja Chemical Weapons Victims Society.

Today, Khalil is married and the father of a daughter. In fact, it was the preparations for his Persian wedding that made him realize he was not from Iran in the first place.

At the age of 25, Khalil decided to get married. While doing marriage paperwork, he learned for the first time that he was neither Persian nor the son of Ismael Manuchahiri, his Iranian foster father. He discovered that he had originally been registered by Iran's Department of Forensic Medicine as a missing child from Halabja, according to Abdulqadir.

After learning that he was from Halabja, Khalil reached out to the Halabja Victims Society through the KRG representation in Tehran and made plans to return to his birthplace for the first time. He arrived on January 7, and one day later he was taken to Sulaimani Forensic Department for a blood test. However, the first DNA result did not identify his kin.

"After word spread that a missing son has come back to Halabja looking for his family, his original family like any other people saw the news on TV. His mother had insisted that he was her son. So they immediately reached out to us, saying they were ready to submit their blood test," Abdulaqdir said. "Overall, 73 families submitted their blood test."

The second DNA test, which was conducted in Tehran in late February, proved that "he was the son of [Maliha Mahmood, his original mother]. But Halabja court did not acknowledge the examination result. Therefore the third and final DNA test was taken in Erbil on April 11. The result was announced in late November, confirming the accuracy of the second DNA [test] and he finally reunited with his original family," he added.

Khalil's mother Maliha Mohammed, who is now in her eighties, recounted the first time she and her other children saw Khalil in Halabja. She was sure in the very first moment that he was her son.

"When I saw him, I hugged him and told him 'dear Khalil, do not cry. God willing you are my Khalil," the mother told Rudaw on Sunday while shedding tears of joy. "Khalil kept crying and I told him ‘look, they are your older and younger brothers and your sister.’"

Khalil's father died a few years ago. His only wish before death was to see how his grown up son and hug his grandsons and daughters, but the dream never came true, said Khalil's sister.

"My father was all the time consoling us that Khalil was alive and was telling me 'even if I do not see him again, I am sure you will'. He was sure that Khalil will come back one day. He was saying Khalil will come back with his wife and children," Sara Salih told Rudaw.

However, what remains unclear for both of Khalil’s families is which country Khalil will choose to live in.

"I have one request. I want to see Mr. President of the Kurdistan Region [Nechirvan Barzani]. I will decide where to live after I will hear decisions from the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs and KRG officials about me," Khalil says.

But his foster father Manuchahiri, the man who raised Khalil for 31 years, said, "My Mohammed cannot live there."

"It is impossible. The life of Mohammed and his wife is completely different. [Mohammed] has very close relations with his parents-in-law family as well," Manuchahiri says.

The reason why several DNA tests were performed for Khalil both inside and outside of the Kurdistan Region was to avoid scandalous mistakes made in the past, such as the case of a woman named Maryam, who was reunited with a family only to be told afterwards that the DNA tests results were wrong.

KRG Representative to Tehran Nazim Dabagh has urged families who have lost contact with relatives to continue to search for them in Iran and ask about their whereabouts.

"Finding the missing people of Halabja is not easy. Those who have their loved ones missing must search for them and we will do our utmost on our side to assist them," Dabagh had told Rudaw English.

If those in Iran believe they are originally from Halabja, they should reach out to his office because, "the process of reunification between both sides would be very easy.”

Some 179 children have been reported missing by 73 families, according to the Halabja Victims' Society. As of now, only eight children have rejoined their families.