Um Qasr

Um Qasr

Abdali, Kuwait's Northern Gateway, includes the main border crossing between Kuwait and Iraq at Um Qasr. The area includes Kuwait's northern oil fields, commercial and agricultural operations, water sources and low-intensity desert recreation and grazing areas. The area remains an important location for oil exploration and cross-border trade with Iraq. Alongside Abdali is the 'Highway of Death', so eerily nicknamed after the hundreds of Iraqi soldiers who died on it in 1991. Images of hundreds of vehicles set on fire along a strip of tarmac in the desert have become iconic images of the Persian Gulf War. This led to the Highway 80 being featured in poems, films and video games. Today, it is a busy road that crosses desert and farmland. All that remains to remember what happened on this road is a handful of road signs thanking US troops.