Umm Qasr ( ar, أم قصر, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr'') is a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

city in southern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

. It is separated from the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

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 Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

town, but was used as a military port on several occasions before advancing trades and jobs by building a deep-water port on the coast. It was said to have been the site of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

's landing in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

in 325 BC. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. 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 The Shatt al-Arab ( ar, شط العرب, lit=River of the Arabs; fa, اروندرود, Arvand Rud, lit=Swift River) is a river of some in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in ...

waterway that marks the border with

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The port facilities were built by a consortium of companies from

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

, with a railway line connecting it to

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

and

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. The port opened for business in July 1967.

Iran–Iraq War

During the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Counci ...

(1980–1988) its importance increased as fighting restricted access to other ports further east. Umm Qasr was threatened after the Iranian invasion and occupation of the al-Faw Peninsula in 1986 but the port never fell.

Gulf War

Access to the port was part of the territorial dispute with

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. The Iraqi government rejected the border changes and continued to claim Kuwaiti territory near the port. The Iraqi government shifted much commerce to Umm Qasr from

to punish the Basrawis economically for their support of the post-war rebellions against

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

U.S.-led invasion

Umm Qasr was the target of one of the first major military operations in the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...

, on March 21, 2003. The assault on the port was spearheaded by British

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious warfare, amphibious light infantry and also one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighti ...

, US Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit 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 Royal Navy Fleet Diving Unit 3 and reopened, Umm Qasr played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian supplies to Iraqi civilians. During a debate in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 ...

in late March 2003, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon somewhat inadvisedly compared Umm Qasr to the southern English city of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. The analogy was met with scepticism among the troops. A British soldier was widely quoted as retorting, "There's no beer, no prostitutes and people are shooting at us. It's more like

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

". In January 2006, the 100th British soldier died in Iraq. Corporal Gordon Pritchard, was killed in a bomb explosion in the town. An American Air Force enlistee, Derek Mohamed Adas, described his war-time experience at Camp Bucca and the poverty of the surrounding area in his interview with the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

Veterans History Project The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center (commonly known as the Veterans History Project) was created by the United States Congress in 2000 to collect and preserve the firsthand remembrances of U.S. wartime ...

in 2013.

Geography

Climate

In Umm Qasr, there is a desert climate. In winter there is more rainfall than in summer. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification is BWh. The average annual temperature in Umm Qasr is . About of precipitation falls annually.

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

, 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. * ''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.USAID. DART Assessment of Umm Qasr and Relief Efforts. April 4, 2003
. Today, the population of Umm Qasr communities is around 55,000 people. There are shortages in the higher education services in the city, and most of the students are traveling to Basra's one public university about 57 km, or to the Technical Institute in Al-Zubair region. However, the city has also had many of its people migrate to the European Union, Canada and Australia. The town has a multicultural community, and the borders with neighboring country Kuwait and sea borders has offered people more understanding of the port city's lifestyle.

Sports

Football is the most popular sport among the youth in Umm Qasr. There are many local teams, but the greatest public support is for the Port Culp team in the mother port of Maqel in downtown Basrah. Some of the youth are involved in swimming in the gulf water; also, some people are focusing on the running sports. Female participation in sports is limited in the public schools.

Rail line

A branch of the main

Iraqi Republic Railways Iraqi Republic Railways Company (IRR; ar, الشركة العامة لسكك الحديد العراقية) is the national railway operator in Iraq. Network IRR comprises of . IRR has one international interchange, with Chemins de Fer Syri ...

line connects Umm Qasr to

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.

Buildings and structures

At Umm Qasr, there is a 492-metre-tall (1614 ft) broadcasting mast at .

References

The Sunday Times April 6, 2003 Colonel Cox has a whole town to build. The commando ‘mayor of Umm Qasr’ is starting from scratch, he tells Christina Lamb

United States trade group report on re-opening of Umm Qasr Port

United States Military. Road trip: SDDC Southwest Asia works up front at Iraqi port of Umm Qasr
in ''Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management'', Fall, 2004 by Randall Ramian
2003 UNJLC Reports on Umm Qasr Port

UNIKOM Images of Umm Qasr Port

University of Texas: Area Map

External links

– slideshow by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
{{Authority control Populated places in Basra Province Port cities and towns of the Persian Gulf Port cities and towns in Iraq Cities in Iraq 1958 establishments in Iraq