Samarra East Airbase / Al Bakr Airfield
Samarra East Airbase is located in Northern Iraq approximately 96 kilometers North of Baghdad, and about 12 kilometers Northeaast of the Tigris river. The airbase is served by a single 9,800 foot long runway. Samarra East occupies a 18 square kilometer site and is protected by a 18 kilometers security perimeter. According to the "Gulf War Air Power Survey, there were 12 hardened aircraft shelters at Samarra East as of 1991. At the each end of the main runway are hardened aircraft shelters knowns as "trapezoids" or "Yugos" which were build by Yugoslavian contractors some time prior to 1985.
FOB Pacesetter / Camp Pacesetter
FOB McKenzie
By July 2003 units of the 64th Military Police Company, stationed at
at Samarra East Airfield, continued to provide security in the assigned
areas for 3/29 FA Battalion in Ad Duluiyah (2nd , 3rd and 4tFrom:
Samarra East Airbase / Al Bakr Airfieldhttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/cia-map_iraq.jpg
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/cia-map_iraq.jpg
Al-Askareyya ShrineAl-Askareyya Shrine embraces the tombs of the 10th and 11th Imams, Ali Al-Hadi who died in 868 AD and his son Hassan Al-Askari who died in 874 AD and was buried next to his father. It is a sort of memorial also to the 12th Imam, about whom a superstition lingers that he will return as the Mahdi to establish peace on earth.
From:
http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/samarra.htmlDeath speaks: There is a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to buy provisions from the market and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.
She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city to avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?
That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
From:
http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/samarra.htmlThe famous Spiral of Samarra (Al-Malweyya)
http://www.atlastours.net/iraq/samarra.htmlShow of Force:
Is Samarra operation precurser or warning to nearby Iran ... ?
Washington (dpa) - US-led forces on Thursday launched the largest air assault in Iraq since the beginning of the war, targeting insurgents northeast of Samarra, the US military in Baghdad said.
More than 1,500 US and Iraqi soldiers and 50 aircraft as well as 200 tactical vehicles were involved in "Operation Swarmer," the US- led coalition said.
Forces seized weapons caches containing artillery shells and other explosives in an operation expected to last several days, a military statement said.
Samarra, which lies north of Baghdad, was the site of the insurgent bombing of a revered Shiite mosque on February 22. The attack sparked sectarian violence between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs and heightened concerns the country was on the brink of civil war.
From:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=85502
