Balad Air Base

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Balad Air Base (Arabic: قاعدة بلد الجوية) (ICAO: ORBD) is an Iraqi Air Force base located near Balad in the Sunni Triangle 40 miles (64 km) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Built in the early 1980s, it was originally named Al-Bakr Air Base. In 2003 the base was taken over by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division at the start of the Iraq War. It was called both Balad Air Base and Anaconda Logistical Support Area (LSA) by the United States Army before being renamed Joint Base Balad on June 15, 2008. The base was handed back to the Iraqi Air Force on November 8, 2011, during the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, after which it returned to being called Balad Air Base. During the Iraq War it was the second largest U.S. base in Iraq. It was also one of the busiest airports in the world with 27,500 takeoffs and landings per month, second only to Heathrow Airport. Today it is home to the Iraqi Air Force's contingent of Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons.