Tarnak Farms, Military training facility in Kandahar, Afghanistan

Tarnak Farms is a military installation near Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The complex sits on agricultural land and contains training grounds along with operational facilities.

From 1998 to 2001, the site served as a base for Al Qaeda members who relocated there to escape threats from the Northern Alliance. After 2002, international forces used the grounds for training purposes.

Tarnak Farms takes its name from the Tarnak river plain south of Kandahar. Between 1998 and 2001 it functioned as an al-Qaeda base where recruits received advanced operational training, including urban assault, and where a laboratory worked on poisons and explosives. Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah recorded their wills there before the September 11 attacks.

The site is an active military area and remains closed to the public. Visitors should respect security measures in the region and maintain distance from the airfield and training grounds.

The 17 April 2002 bombing was ruled a friendly-fire incident: US pilot Harry Schmidt, flying an F-16, dropped a 227-kilogram laser-guided bomb on a Canadian live-fire exercise, killing Sgt Marc Leger, Cpl Ainsworth Dyer, Pte Richard Green and Pte Nathan Lloyd Smith of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and wounding eight others.