Jalibah Southeast Air Base or Jalibah Air Base was a former military airport of the Iraqi Air Force. It is located around south east of Baghdad. According to a report by the RAF, it had a main runway and two parallel taxiways as well as hardened air shelters in each corner of the Airbase

History

Operation Desert Storm - Air War phase

During the early days of the war, the RAF identified Jalibah as a Main Operating Base for Iraqi MiG-23s and MiG-29s. On the morning 18 January 1991, eight RAF Tornados from

Dhahran Dhahran (, ) is a city located in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. With a total population of 143,936 as of 2022, it is a major administrative center for the History of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia, Saudi ...

took off to attack Jalibah's Runways and HASs with

JP233 The JP233, originally known as the Low-Altitude Airfield Attack System (LAAAS), is a British submunition delivery system. It consists of large dispenser pods carrying several hundred submunitions designed to attack runways. Design and developme ...

s, with

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

EF-111As and F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft providing SEAD support. Originally, these aircraft was supposed to attack a

Scud missile A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the m ...

site but the sortie was cancelled due to it being daylight. The No.4 Tornado had to turn back due to mechanical problems while remaining refuelled from a VC-10 tanker and approached to the target area. The attack occurred 5:00AM and 5:15AM, with no

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

fire being encountered until south from an ammunition dump. Two other aircraft failed to deliver their weapons, including the No.3 aircraft which accidentally dropped its bombs north of the air base although the rest of attack when as planned. A Muharraq-Bahrain based RAF Tornado strike occurred on the evening of 21 January. This strike was conducted at medium altitude with aircraft using each eight 1,000 pound bombs and was supported by four USAF F-4Gs and two F-15C Eagles. Several SAMs were launched although the RAF pilots concluded that the SAMs were most likely unguided. Several hours later, the first Dhahran RAF Tornado medium level strike occurred on Jalibah, each aircraft carrying five 1,000 pound bombs.

Ground War phase

Towards the end of the war, the air base was the scene of the

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

between the Iraqi Army and the US 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division. On the 27th of February at 6:00AM, the US 2nd Brigade began the attack after an artillery barrage by supporting US Army forces. Among the Iraqi Losses were 20 aircraft (including an Su-25K Frogfoot-A) destroyed on the ground and a tank battalion. Jalibah Southeast Air Base was then captured by the US Army.

References

{{reflist Iraqi Air Force bases History of Basra Governorate