Location: Midway between Fallujah and Baghdad on the Baghdad-Ramadi road

Short Descriptor: Location of CW/BW defense training center operated by the Fallujah General Headquarters Department and the Chemical Weapons Branch of the Iraqi Army

Details:
n/a

Other Information:

With regard to collective training for chemical units, a huge and modern program was established called the Chemical Training Center located in Tariqa Bin Ziad camp near Baghdad on the Ramadi-Baghdad road. It is an extremely large unit equipped with the most precise modern chemical equipment. The center's responsibility is to handle the consequences of chemical, nuclear, and biological strikes. Inside the center, strikes are conducted with real or simulated material. Large army units on the level of brigade, including a division, go in to be exposed to the conditions of a real or simulated chemical strike to train them in protective measures against the effects of a strike and in attacks and defensive measures during these conditions. The center has decontamination stations that cooperate in training exercises for the chemical battalion unit of the neighboring area. The center is directly affiliated with the chemical branch directorate and includes more than 400 members, including an officer, branch officer, and a soldier, all of them chemical specialists. Observation and summary: Chemical training in the units is planned by the chemical branch unit and implemented by army units. It is directed and monitored by the chemical branch directorate, which prepares regular reports for the general command. Each unit trains no fewer than two times per week, an average of two hours each time, i.e., an average of three hours per week in protective measures from the effect of an attack with weapons of mass destruction. [1]

Key Sources:
[1] GulfLINK, "Iraqi Chemical Warfare," CIA, February 1991, File: cia_65142_65142_01.txt.

	Updated February 2006