Salum Air Base is a former Iraqi Air Force

Iraqi Air Force

The Iraqi Air Force or IQAF is the military branch in Iraq responsible for the policing of international borders, surveillance of national assets and aerial operations...

 base in the Diyala Governorate of Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. It was captured by Coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

Overview

Salum Air Base was a primary air base for the Iraqi Air Force. At each end of the main 10,000' runway are a dozen hardened aircraft shelters known as "Trapezoids" or "Yugos" which were built by Yugoslavian contractors some time prior to 1985 with multiple runways and taxiways, patterned after their Russian counterparts.

The base was heavily attacked by Coalition airpower during Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, and abandoned by the Iraqi Air Force after the cease fire in late February. It was seized by Coalition ground forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003.

Current aerial imagery shows that the operational structures around the airfield appear to have been demolished and removed. Today the concrete runway and series of taxiways remain exposed and deteriorating to the elements, being reclaimed by the desert.