Umm Qasr

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Umm Qasr (أم قصر, also transliterated as : Um-qasir, Um-qasser), is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. A bridge across the waterway linked the port with Kuwait prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

History

Village to Port

Umm Qasr was originally a small fishing town but was used as a military port on a few occasions. It was said to have been the site of Alexander the Great's landing in Mesopotamia in 325 BC. During the Second World War a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the Soviet Union. It fell back into obscurity after the war, but the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s.

After the Iraqi Revolution of 1958, a naval base was established at Umm Qasr. The port was subsequently founded in 1961 by the Iraqi ruler General Abdul-Karim Qassem. It was intended to serve as Iraq's only "deep water" port, reducing the country's dependence on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border with Iran. The port facilities were built by a consortium of companies from West Germany, Sweden and Lebanon, with a railway line connecting it to Basra and Baghdad. The port opened for business in July 1967.

Iran - Iraq War

During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) its importance increased as fighting restricted access to other ports further east. Umm Qasr was threatened after the successful Iranian invasion and occupation of the al-Faw peninsula in 1986. However, the port never fell during the Iran-Iraq War.

First Gulf War

Access to the port was a significant issue in the territorial dispute with Kuwait which led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Both countries contested ownership of the inlet leading to Umm Qasr as well as control of the nearby Kuwaiti islands of Bubiyan and Warbah. After the war, during which the port was bombed, control of the inlet was transferred to Kuwait, and a large trench and sand berm was constructed along the border of the two nations. The Iraqi government rejected the border changes and continued to claim Kuwaiti territory near the port. Meanwhile the Iraqi government shifted much commerce to Umm Qasr away from Basra in order to punish the Basrans economically for their support of the post-war rebellions against the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Second Gulf War

See: Battle of Umm Qasr

Umm Qasr was the target of one of the first major military operations in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, on March 29, 2003. The assault on the port was spearheaded by British Royal Marines and Polish GROM troops, but Iraqi forces put up unexpectedly strong resistance, requiring several days' fighting before the area was cleared of defenders. After the waterway was de-mined by Australian Clearance Diving Team Three, Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron FOURTEEN Detachment ONE and Naval Special Clearance Team ONE of the U.S. Navy and a Royal Navy Clearance Diving Detachment and reopened, Umm Qasr played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian supplies to Iraqi civilians.

In January 2006, the 100th British soldier to die in Iraq, Corporal Gordon Pritchard, was killed in a bomb explosion in the town.

Today

Town

Population estimates are around 46,000 people living in Umm Qasr town at the outbreak of the 2003 war. Having grown from a tiny fishing village in 1958, the town is laid out in planned housing tracts, with workers living near the previously state-owned industries which employed them. Almost the entire population were relocated from other parts of Iraq to work in state run industries. The port (and its workforce) were dramatically expanded following the first Gulf War, in part to remove vital functions from Basra, scene of a major anti-government uprising. A mapping project shortly thereafter stated "In total, the town is composed of 82 streets; each street has 72 houses. Up to three to four families live in each house." It then described three main neighborhoods:

North Indian Camp (Hindi Court) in the north, with 6,600 people and 37 streets
South Indian Camp to the west of town, mostly to house port workers. It was reported by USAID that the previous government had forcebly relocated this entire neighborhood away from the main port (the east) at an indeterminate recent date, presumably for security reasons.
Port/Customs Office with housing and offices for the Iraqi Ministry of Industry; housing for workers in the pipe, steel, and cement factories.

Public services

Prior to the 2003 war, Umm Qasr had 13 primary schools (four for boys, four for girls, and five coeducational), two intermediate schools for boys, and five secondary schools (two for boys, one night school for boys, and two for girls). There was a single hospital for the town.

Railline

A branch of the main Iraqi Republic Railways line connects Umm Qasr to Basra from Shouaiba Junction (near Basra) via the port of Khawr az-Zubayr.

Airport

Umm Qasr has a Civil aviation airport, with the ICAO Code of ORUQ.

Threat

Militants launch rockets into nearby (1.5 miles) Camp Bucca, the US military's largest detainee prison camp. The rockets are widely believed to be often provided and set up by Iranians who teach the militants to launch them hours after they've returned to their nearby country (45 miles). The lethal explosions average around 5 per month in a period from September 2007 to late April 2008, with the most intense barage coming during The Ra'madan period (October) when 12 aerial bombs (Believed to be stolen from a British camp in nearby [50 miles] el Basrah) landed in a span of 8 days.