Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Al Qa Qaa General Establishment
Al Qaqa State Establishment
Badr General Establishment

Al Qa Qaa is located in Yousefiya 30-38 km South of Baghdad, near Iskandariya. The actual Iraqi name for the complex is the al Qa Qaa Government Enterprise. The complex consists of at least a solid propellant facility, a suspected Scud production facility, a SSM equipment production facility, an unidentified facility under construction as of late 1990, and the Latifiyah BW facility located at the eastern end of the complex which is part of an overall complex known as the Latifiya Explosives and Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa. [GulfLINK]

Entities at this facility include:

• Aqaba Ibn Nafa'a Gen. Est. -- metal casings for Project 946
• Khalid factory -- Production of Al Hussein class missiles (warheads)
• Project 144/7 -- Production of Al Hussein class missiles (liquid propellants)
• Project 144/5 (Farooq project) -- Production of Al Hussein class missiles (launchers) Facility abandoned in 1988 after destruction during an industrial accident at the site
• Saddam Gen. Est. -- nuclear parts, lasers and optical equipment, Tamouz missile
• Umm Al Marik Est. -- missile fuel and warheads
• Al Yarmouk Gen. Est. -- missile parts, ammunition with special specifications

Al Qa Qaa was responsible for the explosive filling of long-range missile warheads.

Warhead processing facilities at the site were destroyed under UNSCOM supervision.

Iraq made significant progress in the development of the nuclear weapon implosion package, largely through efforts at the Al Qa Qaa establishment. The involvement of the Al Qa Qaa State Establishment in support of the development of the implosion package began in 1987. [GC 40-13]

In 1989 Al Qaqa was ripped by a large explosion that was later determined to be a crude effort to build an atomic bomb using HMX and RDX. After the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the United Nations put the IAEA in charge where weapons inspectors discovered that the explosives had been bought from France, China and Yugoslavia.

The Nassr industrial complex southwest of Baghdad contained dozens of state-of-the-art major manufacturing facilities such as steel and aluminum production facilities, steel and aluminum casting facilities, numerous machine shops, huge presses and high-temperature furnaces and sophisticated welding equipment used to work with very high strength steel and aluminum, and a research and development center. The heavily guarded Nassr complex also produced components for Iraq's nuclear centrifuge program and was the site of a centrifuge manufacturing plant. Nassr also contributed to Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs. Much of the equipment at the Nassr complex was obtained through Iraqi procurement fronts operating in Europe and the United States. Nassr was a prime target for allied bombing during the Gulf War.

Accordring to the British Dossier Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction released in September 2002, parts of the al-Qa'qa' chemical complex damaged in the Gulf War had been repaired and were operational. Of particular concern were elements of the phosgene production plant at al-Qa'qa'. These were severely damaged during the Gulf War, and dismantled under UNSCOM supervision,but have since been rebuilt. While phosgene does have industrial uses it can also be used by itself as a chemical agent or as a precursor for nerve agent.