Khamisiyah

Khamisiyah (Arabic: الخميسية‎‎ Khamisiyah) is an area in southern Iraq located approximately 350 km south east of Baghdad, 200 km north-west of Kuwait City and 270 km north of Al Qaysumah. Khamisiyah is under the administration of the province of Dhi Qar. The area contains a few small towns, including Khamisiyah and Sahalat, with an estimated population of 8,500. It is probably most noted for the Khamisiyah Ammunition Storage Facility (also known as Tel Al Lahm Ammunition Storage Facility) built and used during the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The Khamisiya Ammunition Storage Facility was a site approximately 25 square kilometres in area and consisted of two sections: one of 88 warehouses; the other of 100 hardened concrete bunkers surrounded by an earth berm and security fencing. The storage complex was in use by 1982.

In March 1991, combat engineers and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams of the U.S. Army, conducted a demolition operation. The entire storage complex, containing massive quantities of munitions, was set to be destroyed. On 4 March, all explosive charges were detonated, and witnesses stated that the resultant explosion yielded an impressive mushroom cloud. It has not been confirmed how this explosion affected Iraqi civilians in the area, if at all.

It was not known at the time, but destruction of ordnance at Khamisiya is thought to have consequently released nerve agents such as sarin and cyclosarin into the atmosphere. Computer-generated models based on atmospheric conditions project that clouds of nerve agents would have drifted south and reached allied troops. Records also show that Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) sensors monitoring the air soon reported traces of nerve agents. These NBC detection units were military units of several allied countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Poland.

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