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"Are there military applications for this stuff that doesn't involve weaponry?"

Vehicle, or other hardware parts. I see some kind of plating here, where the cyanide is used to produce a certain morphology and stress in the layer. The factory's purpose, or product output needs to be clarified. The acid qtys here and other chem qtys look like metal finishing.

One thing I know for certain from all my years in Chemistry, is that just about anything can be misused. You can walk into a pharmaceutical lab and make a bomb. Without too much effort I might add. It all depends on your intent.

So what do we think they were trying to do? Put a zinc coating on some metal parts, or produce some cylinders of cyanide for Al Qaeda?

I tried to google the factory and got several possibilities besides the spelling provided by jveritas: Zu al Fikar; Zu al Fikr; Du al Fikar; and Dhu al Fikar would be alternatives. I'm still at work and can't take the time to really find something.

However, according to Global Security.org, the Rashid State Company's Dhu-al-Fikar factory (assuming it's the same one) was investigated for the presence of high strength aluminum tubes. Then it says this:

"Approximately 70,000 high-strength aluminum 81-mm tubes are located in two padlocked ware- houses (see pictures) at Dhu al-Fiqar Factory, which is within a secure facility protected by armed Facility Protection Service personnel. According to a current NMD offi cial, Dhu al-Fiqar Factory employees were cutting the tubes into pieces for use in the private sector."