Iran's Chemical Ali survivors still bear scars

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent NOWDESHEH, Iran (Reuters) - High in remote Kurdish mountains, Iranian villagers still nurse ravaged eyes and lungs, 20 years after Iraqi poison gas attacks that went mostly ignored by world powers then siding with Saddam Hussein against Iran. That perceived hypocrisy continues to rankle in the Islamic Republic, now accused by the West of seeking nuclear weapons. It was 4 p.m. on March 17, 1988 when Iraqi planes dropped eight mustard gas bombs over the wood-beamed stone houses of Nowdesheh, nestled in a green horseshoe valley near the border. "I saw the gas and smelled peaches," said Dara Meshkati, who was 10 years old at the time. "Then my eyes closed and I couldn't see anything. I was blind for two months." U.N. investigators said 13 people were killed and over 100 injured in the... [read full story]