Al-Rashid Air Base

Al Rasheed Air Base
Diyala Governorate in Iraq
Al Rasheed Air Base Shown within Iraq
Coordinates	33°16′40″N 044°29′41″E / 33.27778°N 44.49472°E / 33.27778; 44.49472Coordinates: 33°16′40″N 044°29′41″E / 33.27778°N 44.49472°E / 33.27778; 44.49472
Type	Air Base
Site information
Owner	Iraqi Armed Forces
Operator	Iraqi Air Force
Site history
Built	1922 (1922)
In use	1922-present
Airfield information
Elevation	34 metres (112 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 15/33 2,500 metres (8,202 ft) Asphalt

Al Rasheed Air Base is a major Iraqi Air Force base on the south east outskirts of Baghdad in the Diyala Governorate of Iraq.

It is located approximately 11 kilometers southeast of downtown Baghdad. The airbase is served by an 8,300 foot long runway. According to the Gulf War Air Power Survey, there were 10 hardened aircraft shelters at Rasheed of 1991.

109 Squadron which flies the Sukhoi Su-25 is based there.

Al Rasheed Air Base was originally a British Military base and airfield developed after the First World War and from 1922 became the main base for the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and called RAF Hinaidi. When the RAF built their new base at RAF Dhibban (renamed RAF Habbaniya on 1 May 1938), the RAF began, in 1936, to leave RAF Hinaidi Cantonment and when the move was complete in 1938 it was handed over to the Royal Iraqi Air Force.

The airbase was bombed in Operation Kaman 99 on the second day of the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, just after the Iraqi invasion of Iran, and was not operable for 69 days, according to Iranian reports.

The Iraqi Military Intelligence Military Brigade stationed there included a rapid intervention battalion to respond to security threats in the Baghdad region. By early 1998 the 6th Special Republican Guard Battalion, stationed at al-Rashid barracks, was charged with responsibility to seal off the Shi'i "Saddam City" quarter and bombard it indiscriminately in case of mass revolt, as the Guard did in Najaf and Karbala in 1991.

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Wikipedia