Opening of Um Qasr Port.
Last stamp in a set of 4, issued on 14.07.1967.
Face value: 40 Iraqi fils.
Printed by De la Rue.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 40 x 25 mm.
Catalogs
- Michel No. 491.
- Scott No. 442.
- StampWorld No. 488.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 762.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 477.
Um Qasr port is Iraq's is strategically important, located on the western edge of the al-Faw peninsula, where the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway enters the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. Um Qasr was originally a small fishing town, but 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. In 1950s the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s, and In 1958 after the coup d'etat of the Iraqi Army known as the July 14 Revolution, the Iraqi Navy established a base there. The port opened for business in July 1967. The Battle of Umm Qasr (March 2003) was the first military confrontation in the Iraq War, with its objective the capture of the port. On 23 May 2003, control of the facility was transferred from the Spanish Army operating under the British Royal Marines. The restoration works of the port were carried out between January and May 2004.
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