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 Akashat Mine, located 420 km west of Baghdad, is a uranium ore production facility associated with the Al Qaim site.

The Al Qaim facility, 100 km to the north east, remains capable of ore refinement.

[1] 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.