2 Answers 2. The Moon has an orbital eccentricity of 0.0549, so its path around the Earth is not perfectly circular and the distance between the Earth and the Moon will vary from the Earth's frame of reference (Perigee at 363,295 km and apogee at 405,503 km), see for example second animation explaining Lunar librations in this answer.
The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq, as well as part of the Iraqi attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the fall of the town to Iranian army. The attack killed between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injured 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians.
Even the unverified claims of a mass-chemical attack in Syria will add urgency to the debate within the Obama administration over whether and how the U.S. government should seek to intervene in the crisis, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives during the past two years.