Khan al Baghdadi

Khan al Baghdadi or Al Baghdadi is a city on the Euphrates River in Al Anbar province in Iraq. .

Its airport "Khan Al Baghdadi Airport" has the airport code "XIH" is now a US Marine base.^[1]^[2]

US patrols in 2008 noted many small businesses open on the main street. A quick glance around revealed three “gas stations”, each consisting of several plastic tanks of gas standing in the sun. It doesn’t seem particularly safe or efficient, but it is a form of commerce. We noticed that there was significantly more gas available for sale now than in the past and the plastic tanks were sitting on 55 gallon drums of fuel. Selling gas here makes sense since we were on a main road along the Euphrates and there was consistent traffic passing by. There was also a mechanic shop and a few more shops selling groceries. Fields near the river were green and growing. They were planted with onions, lettuce, tomatoes and spring wheat and somebody had laid a few water pipes to irrigate fields a bit farther away from the riverbank. A boy herded flocks of sheep though the fields. It is clear that irrigated fields were once more extensive in the area than they are today.

The Euphrates is fast flowing at this point. We saw ruins where waterwheels had once harnessed the power of the river probably to pump water to more distant places, but we didn’t see any working wheels anywhere along this stretch of the river. Water wheels may be a lost art locally. A diesel engine is less reliable and more expensive to run, but it is easier to set up and work.