Location: Tarmiya, approximately 35km north of Baghdad city center
Subordinate to: Military Industrialization Corporation
Primary Function: Chemical research

Description:
Ibn-Sina was a chemical research facility situated at the Tarmiya site, one of the primary locations for the pre-Desert Storm electromagnetic isotope separation project.

The site was of interest to UN missile inspectors because in 1996, Ibn-Sina was tasked with designing an ammonium perchlorate (AP) production facility; as the work evolved, a pilot plant was established at Ibn Sina with a small 500kg per annum capability. Equipment for the pilot plant was located in one building.

The full-scale plant was to be located at the Ma'moun facility, based on the experience of the Ibn-Sina pilot project and with other assistance from the Chemical Engineering and Design Center, which designed equipment for the AP plant. In 1997, the Iraqis declared that the facility was of Iraqi design and would use Iraqi-manufactured equipment. Indeed, Iraq claimed that no delegations had gone abroad in support of the plant. At the time inspectors first left in 1998, the Ma'moun site was undergoing construction. Iraq actually turned to an Indian company, NEC Engineering, to assist with construction of the plant (see Ma'moun entry).

The 24 September 2002 "Iraq Dossier" published by the United Kingdom said of the Ibn-Sina Center: "New chemical facilities have been built, some with illegal foreign assistance, and are probably fully operational or ready for production. These include the Ibn Sina Company at Tarmiyah, which is a chemical research centre. It undertakes research, development, and production of chemicals previously imported but not now available and which are needed for Iraq's civil industry. The Director General of the research centre is Hikmat Na'im al-Jalu, who prior to the Gulf War worked in Iraq's nuclear weapons programme and after the war was responsible for preserving Iraq's chemical expertise."

Key Sources: UN Inspection Data; "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government," 24 September 2002, p. 20, <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/pdf/iraqdossier.pdf>.

	Updated October 2003