Warbah Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warbah Island (Arabic: جزيرة الوربة‎)is an island belonging to Kuwait, located in the Persian Gulf, near the mouth of the Euphrates River. It is located roughly 100 meters east of the Kuwaiti mainland, 1.5 kilometers north of Bubiyan Island and 1 kilometer south of the Iraqi mainland. It is roughly 15 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide with a total area of 37 square kilometers. The island is essentially a large mud flat.

The island has no permanent inhabitants although the government maintains an coastguard post, named M-1 on the island which is partially funded by the United Nations.[[1]]

In November 1994, Iraq formally accepted the UN-demarcated border with Kuwait which had been spelled out in Security Council Resolutions 687 (1991), 773 (1993), and 883 (1993) which formally ended an earlier claim to Warbah Island.[[2]]

Near the island in early December, 2002, in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, an Iraqi ship opened fire on two Kuwaiti coastguard patrol boats, causing them to collide. A US serviceman and two Kuwaiti coastguards were injured in the attack, no mention was made of the reason for the US serviceman's presence. [[3]][[4]]

Coordinates: 30°0′N 48°04′E