Ambulances speed across the Iraqi base carrying wounded security personnel, while others prepare to head to the front lines in the battle to retake Mosul from jihadists.
The Qayyarah base was retaken from the Islamic State jihadist group earlier this year and is now a key logistics hub for the major multi-pronged operation to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second city.
A policeman says the ambulances are carrying security personnel wounded by a car bomb at the front.
Military vehicles arrive and depart, bringing members of Iraqi police forces to and from the front lines through an entrance in the dirt berm surrounding the base.
One of those heading to the front is First Lieutenant Hussam Hussein Ali, travelling in a small pickup truck painted in the blue and black camouflage of the police.
In addition to the overall goal of defeating IS in Iraq, Ali has an added incentive to fight: he is from an area that was seized by the jihadists, who overran swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014 and 2015.
Ali is "very happy about this battle, because I am from these areas, and God willing, they will be liberated," he says, before heading off to join the fight.
On the same road, policemen gather to receive food from a white pickup truck flying an Iraqi flag and another bearing the image of Imam Hussein, a revered figure in Shiite Islam.
The booming sound of artillery periodically announces shells being fired at IS, and jets can be heard flying overhead.
– Raging oil fires –
A pair of Apache attack helicopters prowl the perimeter of the base, which houses members of the US-led coalition against IS, which is providing support to Iraqi forces.
Two MRAP armoured vehicles, one with an image of an American flag overlaid with a bald eagle, drive down a road inside the base.
The soldier manning the machinegun atop one of the MRAPs flashes a victory sign as they drive by.
In the distance, a massive cloud of dark grey smoke blots out the horizon — the result of oil wells being set afire by IS in an effort to provide cover from air strikes.
Columns of smoke from the fires spew into the sky over the town of Qayyarah, on the other side of the Tigris River, marking the places where Iraq's oil wealth has became a casualty of the war.
A soldier says the fires were set before Qayyarah was recaptured in August, and have been burning ever since, polluting the air for the people living in the area.
The battle for Mosul brings Iraqi forces back to the scene of their disastrous collapse in 2014, but IS has long since been put on the defensive.
Iraqi forces have recaptured most of the territory lost to the jihadists in 2014 and the following year, and Mosul is now the last city held by IS in the country.
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