Rehabilitating Umm Qasr Port

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Work has started to rehabilitate the Umm Qasr port in Basra, the relations and media director at the Iraqi Ports Company said on Wednesday. “This comes fllowing an order issued by Transportation Minister, Amir Abdiljabbar,” Anmar al-Safi told IraqiNews.com news agency. He also said that ports at the Iraqi province of Basra received on Tuesday three cargo ships. The Shiite province of Basra, 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has five commercial ports and two oil ports: al-Maaqal, established in 1916 by the British forces and handed over to Iraqi authorities in 1937; and Faw, a small port on the al-Faw Peninsula near the Shatt al-Arab waterway and the Persian Gulf. In the early 1970s, Umm al-Qasr port was built, and in 1974, Khour al-Zubeir and Abu Fallous ports were established on the Shatt al-Arab. MH (P)/SH 2