Habbaniya, Iraq
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Lake Habbaniyah (Arabic: هور الحبانية Hawr al-Habbaniyah) is a shallow natural lake in al-Anbar, Iraq, west of Baghdad. It has a surface area 140km². Traditionally the lake has been used to hold floodwater from the River Euphrates, and in 1956 a barrage was constructed at Ramadi for this purpose. The lake was also used for recreational purposes.
In the late 1930s and 1940s Lake Habbaniyah was used as a refuelling point for flying boats flying from the United Kingdom to India. Nearby on the banks of the Euphrates had already been established the RAF base of Dhibban, later renamed RAF Habbaniya. It was the scene of action during the Rashid Ali rebellion Anglo-Iraqi War when the RAF training aircraft and troops there effectively saw off the besieging Iraqi troops and subsequent German aerial attacks.
Habbaniya is now also the site of a major United States military base known as Al Taqqadum. This military base is across the flood relief canal, up on the plateau where the RAF built an additional airfield in 1953. Habbaniya itself remains a military base and is responsible for the training of the new Sunni 5000. A drive by the Iraqi MOD to incorporate Sunni Iraqi's into the military to make it more representative, the base having had its first graduation of recruits in May 2006.
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the imam of the mosque in Habbaniyah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, had spoken out against militants fighting the U.S.-backed government, including the group al-Qaida in Iraq.
