Basra

Al-Baṣrah (Arabic: البصرة‎; BGN: Al Basrah, also called 'Basorah) is the capital of Basra Province, Iraq, and is Iraq's second largest and second most populous city. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it is incapable of deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr. The city is the historic location of Sumer, the home of Sinbad the Sailor, and a proposed location of the Garden of Eden. It also played an important role in early Islamic history, being built in 636 CE.

Basra in Joe Steele

In October 1943, Basra was the site of the first conference attended by the three main leaders of the Allies: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Joe Steele, and Soviet leader Leon Trotsky. While Churchill had met with Steele and Trotsky one-on-one the year before, this was the first time Steele and Trotsky met in person. The two men, who hated each other deeply and had been sniping at each other for years before becoming allies by necessity, remained cordial during the meeting.

Charlie Sullivan, one of Steele's speechwriters, attended the conference. He was astonished by how little the British had actually invested in Basra's infrastructure while at the same time creating a "Little England" in the middle of downtown Basra.

Basra in Worldwar

Basra was a restive city within the Race's Tosev 3 colonies. The Muslim population chaffed under Race rule. Very early in the Race's invasion, several infantrymales disappeared outside the city. The Race responded violently, which helped quell Basra until the arrival of the Colonization Fleet. As that fleet neared, tensions began mounting in Basra again. Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim firebrand from Iran, made Basra one of his regular haunts. Days before the Colonization Fleet was due to land, Khomeini whipped up a riot against the Race, which was brutally put down. However, tensions simmered, especially when colonists began living in Basra, and some of the most fundamentalist Muslims learned that unclothed females were among them.

After a time, the followers of Khomeini learned that subtle terrorist attacks would work better than rioting. When they discovered that females of the Race went into heat upon tasting ginger, they kidnapped females, fed them ginger, and waited for out of control infantrymales to arrive. Whole squads of males were wiped out using this trap.

However, incidents such as this decreased as the Race's retaliation increased in scale. Basra quieted down further once an infanrymale named Gorppet actually captured Khomeini, who was quickly exiled to South America. Basra would never be a completely safe place for the Race, but it was far less dangerous from then on.