Mesopotamian Campaign
| Mesopotamian Campaign | |||||||||
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| Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I | |||||||||
 Ottoman Sixth Army troops at the Siege of Kut. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Kuwait (1914) |
 Ottoman Empire German Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 John Nixon Percy Lake Frederick Maude Charles Townshend (POW) Mubarak Al-Sabah
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Süleyman Askerî Bey Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (died of typhus) Nureddin Bey Khalil Pasha Kâzım Karabekir Ali İhsan Pasha
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| Strength | |||||||||
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889,702 (total)
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c. 450,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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85,200 battle casualties
16,712 died of disease Total: 256,000 casualties |
~89,500 battle casualties
Total: 325,000 casualties |
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889,702 (total)
85,200 battle casualties
16,712 died of disease
154,343 evacuated sick
~89,500 battle casualties
The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, mostly troops from Britain and the Indian Empire, and the Central Powers, mostly of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire had conquered the region in the early 16th century, but never fully gained complete control. Regional pockets of Ottoman control through local proxy rulers maintained the Ottoman's reach throughout Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). With the turn of the 19th century came reforms. Work began on a Baghdad Railway in 1888; by 1915 it had only four gaps, and travel time from Istanbul to Baghdad had fallen to 21 days.
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company had obtained exclusive rights to petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire, except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Ghilan, Mazendaran, Asdrabad, and Khorasan. In 1914, before the war, the British government had contracted with the company for oil for the navy.
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