Umm Qasr, also known as Khawr Umm Qasr, is a port city in Iraq, on the western side of the al-Faw peninsula on the shores of the Arvand Rud  waterway which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet; prior to the Persian Gulf War traffic between Kuwait and Iraq flowed over a bridge there.

Umm Qasr was long a small fishing town of no great importance until a naval base was established here after the  was deposed by a coup in 1958. Modern port facilities were built here.

When in 1958, Iraqi nationalists and radicals threw out the king imposed on them by the British after World War One when Iraq was created out of three Ottoman provinces. Over the next five years of relative freedom and democracy, Iraq began putting together a nationalized, planned economy, based on its oil wealth. Hundreds of factories were eventually constructed, making it the most industrialized country in the Middle East. A new deepwater port was built on the Persian Gulf, Umm Qasr, which became a lynchpin in that plan. From its piers Iraq began to ship the goods from those factories to buyers in other countries throughout the region. The port became a symbol of progress and independence, an achievement of the Iraqi revolution.


During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) its importance increased as fighting restricted access to other ports further east.  The port of Basra, deep in the Arvand Rud waterway, became unusable as it was just miles from the Iranian border. 

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, during which the port was bombed, control of the inlet leading to Umm Qasr was transferred to Kuwait, and a large trench and sand berm was constructed along the border of the two nations. Meanwhile much commerce was shifted to Umm Qasr away from Basra by deliberate Iraqi government policy to punish Basra for its role in the rebellions against the rule of Saddam Hussain.

The city of Umm Qasr was one of the first Iraq cities conquered in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, on March 29, 2003. The assault on the city was spearheaded by British Royal Marines and Polish GROM, but Iraqi forces put up unexpectedly strong resistance, requiring several days' fighting before it was cleared of defenders. After the port was de-mined and reopened, it played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian supplies to Iraqi civilians.