Neptune's Needle

city (1986 est. pop. 616,000), SE Iraq, on the W bank of the Shatt al Arab; (cap.) Basra prov. Basra is Iraq’s 2d-largest city and principal port. The British occupied Basra during World War I and used its port; they remained there until 1932. After World War I the construction of a RR line to Baghdad and the building of a modern harbor restored the city’s importance. Due to its location on the heavily contested Shatt al Arab waterway, Basra was hard hit by Iranian forces in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. The port was further bombed by Western coalition forces in the Pers. Gulf War (1991), primarily to thwart covert trade.

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Compiler

Peter Richards