Ash Shaykili Nuclear Facility
Ash Shaykili Warehouse complex

The Ash Shaykili compound is located approximately 14 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, about 2.5 kilomters from the Tuwaith Nuclear Research Center, and served as a storage area for nuclear related components and equipment from the nearby Tuwaithi Nuclear Research center. The 60-acre facility consists of about 30 warehouse storage buildings. Ash Shaykili was the legally designated repository of nuclear-related equipment used at Tuwaitha.

It has been widely reported that as US Forces pressed toward Baghdad, Ash Shaykili was looted by scavagers, who stripped the facility bare.

The facility also was the site of explosions on April 27, 2003, when gunfire caused munitions and missiles that had been cached there by the Iraqi military prior to the war. U.S. CENTCOM issued a statement blaming the explosions on an assailant or assailants who "fired an unknown incendiary device into the cache, causing it to catch fire and explode." The U.S. Army's 11th Engineering Brigade found 80 missiles at Ash Shaykili including, Al Samoud II, and Russian-made FROG-7s.

Quickbird Imagery of the Ash Shaykili Warehouse complex
Click on the small image to view a larger version
Ovrview of Baghdad (NIMA 1;40,000 scale map)	Overview of the Tuwaitha Nuclear research center and the Ash Shaykili warehouse complex
DigitalGlobe imagery of Tuwaitha and Ash Shaykili (Source: DigitalGlobe)	Ash Shaykili in relation to the nearby town of Az Za'Faraniyah (Source: DigitalGlobe)
Ash Shaykili as of 18 August 2002. The storage facility occcupies 60 acres, and has at least 30 warehouse buildings. (Source DigitalGlobe)	After major combat operations, looters from the nearby town stripped the compound bare. Looters breached the security fence and made foot paths through the security berm. Imagery as of 1 October 2003. (Source: DigitalGlobe)
These blackened buildings were probably destroyed as a result of the fire and explosions caused by unidentified assailents in late April 2003. The white arrow points out a gap in the security berm created by looters. (Source: DigitalGlobe)	The white arrow points out a gap in the security berm created by looters, that leads to nearby houses. (Source: DigitalGlobe)