Al Asad Oasis

An Oasis in the middle of an Air Field and Military Base

According to Arab legend, Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrew Bible, the Qur’an, and other Islamic writings, visited the oasis at Al Asad on his journey from Ur to Haran.

According to the legend, he stopped at the oasis, drank from its water, and bathed himself.  He and his family camped here for a short time before moving on to Haran. 


The Arabic name of the village near the oasis is Eyen Al Asad, which means “Spring of the Lion.”  Perhaps the named was derived from a time when this area was a wilderness area with all kinds of wild animals, including lions.  The lions are long gone perhaps the name came from the wild animals present when the first people came here.

In 1985 Saddam Hussein decided to turn the surrounding area into an Iraqi Air Base, which he hired Yugoslavians to build.  He paid the villagers a very small sum of money for their land and moved them to other locations, such as Hit, Baghdadi, and Baghdad.

Today, Al Asad Air Base located in the Al Anbar Province includes the second largest airbase in Iraq and the largest military base in Al Anbar province.  It is located in northern Iraq approximately 180 kilometers West of Baghdad and 12 kilometers southwest of the Euphrates River.  As a former Iraqi Air Force Base,it contained the larger part of the Iraqi Air Force prior to the Second Gulf War.

The environment at Al Asad is typical desert with summer temperatures ranging between 115 and 125 degrees F. Winter temperatures will on rare occasion dip to the low 30’s. While there are several small villages in the general vicinity, for the most part Al Asad is isolated in the middle of barren desert consisting mostly of rock, sand, and occasional scrub brush.

In February, 2010 I visited Al Asad on a business trip.  Below are some photos:

 The photos below are of a bombed Iraqi jet.

 The photos below are of the the"Can" where I stayed while on Al Asad.

 

There was an Olympic sized Swimming pool built by Saddam that the Military continued to maintain for use by soldiers and civilians.

There are several Jets abandoned by Saddam's Air Force.

My traveling companion was Ray pictured above.

 Above is soccer field.

As head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, Uday (Sadaam's Son) oversaw the imprisonment and torture of Iraqi athletes who were deemed not to have performed to expectations. According to widespread reports, torturers beat and caned the soles of the football (Soceer) players' feet — inflicting intense pain without leaving visible marks on the rest of their bodies. One defector reported that jailed football players were forced to kick a concrete ball after failing to reach the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals. Another defector claimed that athletes were dragged through a gravel pit and subsequently immersed in a sewage tank to induce infection in the victims' wounds.  After Iraq lost 1:4 to Japan in quarterfinals of the 2000 AFC Asian Cup in Lebanon, goalkeeper Hashim Hassan, defender Abdul Jaber and forward Qahtan Chatir were labelled as guilty of loss and eventually flogged for three days by Uday's security.