Amara

Amara , town (1987 pop. 208,797), SE Iraq, on the Tigris River. It is a river port and a marketplace for rice, dates, grains, produce, wool, hides, and livestock.

Abora, Mount, in Coleridge's ‘Kubla Khan’, is perhaps to be identified with Milton's Mt. Amara.

Kut, Siege of (December 1915—April 1916) Successful siege of the town of Kut-al-Amara, now in Iraq, by Turkish troops in World War I. Kut-al-Amara is on the River Tigris and was garrisoned by a British imperial force under General Townshend, who had retreated there after his defeat by the Turks at Ctesiphon. Badly organized relief forces failed to break through and the garrison capitulated on 29 April 1916 after a four-month siege. 10,000 prisoners were marched across the desert, two-thirds dying on the way, while some 23,000 troops of the relieving force were also lost. The defeat severely weakened Britain's prestige as an imperial power although Kut-al-Amara was recaptured in February 1917.