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A VAST and unearthly-looking space littered with thousands of rusty tanks was once home to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s personal army.
The secret Camp Taji, located 27km north of Baghdad, was the birthplace of countless chemical weapons used by the tyrant’s military to wreak havoc on the world.
Saddam was Iraq’s cruel leader from 1979 to 2003, when the US and the UK invaded, during which time his repressive regime led to the deaths of thousands.
He was executed for his crimes against humanity in 2006 but the fallout of his evil reign continue to be felt in Iraq as many struggle to forget the extreme brutality he unleashed even on his own people.
Camp Taji played a crucial role in his barbaric presidency as the place where Iraq’s military manufactured its weapons and repaired its tanks – although today it resembles an eerie graveyard more than it does a fearsome base.
Littered among the tanks and vehicles which stretch as far as the eye can see are dozens of French-built, self-propelled guns.
Eighty-five of the weapons are understood to have been used by Iraq in the mid-1980s during its war with Iran, before an arms embargo imposed after Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait saw their supply dry up.
The sprawling military camp is one of the biggest in Iraq at 13km and is just a stone’s throw from major cities Ramadi and Fallujah.
Some 6,000 empty canisters designed to be filled with chemical weapons and used in 122mm rockets have been discovered at Camp Taji by the United Nations Special Commission.
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It is now being used as a key base for the fight against the Islamic State and as a training site for Coalition forces.
Soldiers at the camp live in basic portacabins and are now at a relatively low risk of danger, but are still required to wear body armour and helmets in case of an attack.
A Brit Army medic and two Americans were killed in 2020 when 15 rockets rained down on the military base.
The attack was the largest on a US base in Iraq since Iran launched ballistic missiles at bases housing US troops in January the same year.
Saddam’s painful legacy lives on at more than 100 of his crumbling palaces and villas as well as at Camp Taji.
Gassing his own population, sending opponents to their deaths live on TV and a serial rapist, psychopathic son who tortured the national team’s footballers were all part of his twisted world.
And plenty of the terror committed by the so-called “Beast of Baghdad” took place within the walls of his lavish and closely-guarded estates that are scattered all over Iraq.
A peruse through his estates indicate he had a penchant for murals of himself, marble staircases, ornate ceiling decorations, heavy gates, and rooms with a view – as well as for throwing lavish parties, often having his guards abduct girls off the street to dance for him.
