The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation, described by many scholars and human rights groups as a genocide or ethnic cleansing, which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups and Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate. The Ba'athist regime committed atrocities on the local Kurdish population, mostly civilians. Although primarily targeting Kurds, other non-Arabs also fell victim to the Anfal campaign.