Lake Habbaniyah
Iraq · Asia
About
Lake Habbaniyah (Arabic: بحيرة الحبانية Buḥayrat al-Ḥabbāniya) is a lake located halfway between Ramadi and Fallujah near Al-Taqaddum (TQ) Air Base in Al Habbaniyah in Anbar Province, Iraq.
In the late 1930s and 1940s Lake Habbaniyah was used by Imperial Airways as a refueling point and hotel for flying boats flying from the United Kingdom to India. Nearby on the banks of the Euphrates had already been established the Royal Air Force airbase of RAF Dhibban, later renamed RAF Habbaniya.
It was the scene of action during the Rashid Ali rebellion Anglo-Iraqi War when the RAF trainee aircrew and troops stationed there effectively saw off the besieging Iraqi troops and subsequent German aerial attacks. In 2014, the area was the site of a number of battles between Iraqi forces and militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.