Balad

Balad, additionally transliterated Beled or Belad, is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq, eighty kilometres north of the country wide capital, Baghdad. It is the capital of Balad District. Located between the Sunni towns of Al Dhuluiya, Yathrib and Ishaqi, Balad’s population belong particularly to the Shiite Islamic religion. In the later months of 2014 the city was besieged with the aid of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces, which turned into without problems repelled by way of the Shia citizens of the metropolis and the Iraqi government safety forces.

During the Iraq War Balad became, in 2006, the website of sectarian violence concerning Sunni and Shi'ite militias. In 2007 the mayor, Amir Abdul Hadi, escaped an assassination strive. The largest military air base in Iraq, previously LSA Anaconda, Balad Air Base, or Al-Bakir Air Base, is placed in the municipality of Yethrib close to Balad. As of early 2007 the base changed into the primary hub for airlift and US Air Force operations in Iraq; it was additionally a primary transshipment point for US Army supply convoys.