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1631-HQ-1462938 consisting of 21 passenger vans, pickup trucks and cars. The villagers were told these vehicles would take them to the city Erbil for medical care. However, they were later warned their medical care was contingent on them reporting that their injuries were the result of an attack by Iranian airplanes. At about 9:00 that morning, people in Kurdish dress began to stream into the emergency room of the Republic Hospital in Erbil. Approximately 200 unarmed civilian men, women and children arrived at the hospital. Four were dead on arrival. The survivors arriving from Ranya told doctors that they had been attacked with chemical weapons. Despite their burns, their blindness, and other, more superficial injuries, those who had survived the journey from the Balisan Valley were generally still able to work, although some were unconscious. Even with the assistance of doctors who rushed across from the nearby Maternity and Pediatric Hospital, the facilities were not sufficient to deal with a large-scale emergency. There were far from enough beds to deal with so many victims; many of the patients were laid on the floors, and the occupants of the vans were obliged to wait in the parking lot while the preliminary triage was done and the first treatment carried out. On examination, the doctors found that the victims’ eyes were dried out and glued shut. Having some rudimentary notion of how to treat chemicals, the doctors applied eye drops, washed their burns and administered injections of atropine, a powerful antidote to nerve agents. The doctors had been at work on their patients for about an hour when HASSAN NADURI, the head of the local branch office of Amn, arrived. When NADURI arrived on the morning of April 4, 1987, every doctor in the hospital was busy dealing with the emergency. NADURI was accompanied by two other Amn 14