Akashat ( ar, عكاشات) is a small town in the northwest of the
Ar-Rutba District
Ar-Rutba District ( ar, قضاء الرطبة) is the largest district by area in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq, covering 93,445 km2, and the least populated in relative and absolute terms, with a population of 24,813 (estimate January 2003), o ...
of the
Al Anbar
Al Anbar Governorate ( ar, محافظة الأنبار; ''muḥāfaẓat al-’Anbār''), or Anbar Province, is the largest governorate in Iraq by area. Encompassing much of the country's western territory, it shares borders with Syria, Jordan, ...
province of
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, on the road between the towns of
Ar-Rutbah and
Al-Qa'im. It has a population of around 5,000. It was built as an industrial village in 1985, attached to the local phosphate quarry and administered by the ministry of industry. The Phosphate Plant in the town employs roughly 50-60 permanent workers. Production there was seriously disrupted by the UN sanctions after 1991 and the 2003 war, essentially stopped it from working. It is now operating at around 10%.
Transport
It is the terminus of a branchline of the national railway system. It serves a
phosphate
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...
mine.
The railroad tracks stretch all the way east to Hadithah where they connect in the south to the Persian Gulf and northward eventually to Europe. The phosphate quarry sporadically sends a trainload of raw material to Al Qaim.
Uranium production
The Akashat Mine, located 420 km west of Baghdad, is a uranium ore production facility associated with the Al Qaim site. Iraq has reserves of uranium ore which continue to be mined at Akashat, on the border with Syria. The Al Qaim facility, 100 km to the north east, remains capable of ore refinement. By the mid-1980s Iraq had at least 164 tons of yellowcake, obtained at the Akashat mine and processed in Iraq at Al Qaim, a plant built by a Swiss company.
2013 ambush
On 4 March 2013, as part of both the
post-U.S. withdrawal Iraqi insurgency and the
Syrian civil war, an
ambush took place in Akashat. There was no clear victor, but 51 of the 64 Syrian Army soldiers involved in the ambush were killed, along with 13 Iraqi troops.
See also
*
Iraqi Republic Railways
Iraqi Republic Railways Company (IRR; ar, الشركة العامة لسكك الحديد العراقية) is the national railway operator in Iraq.
Network
IRR comprises of . IRR has one international interchange, with Chemins de Fer Syrien ...
References
{{Al Anbar cities
Populated places in Al Anbar Governorate