Al-Faw in the context of Abu Al-Khaseeb District

The Al-Faw peninsula (Arabic: شبه جزيرة الفاو; also transliterated as Fao or Fawr) is a peninsula in the Persian Gulf, located in the extreme southeast of Iraq. The marshy peninsula is 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Iraq's third largest city, Basra, and is part of a delta for the Shatt al-Arab river, formed by the confluence of the major Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The al-Faw peninsula borders Iran to the northeast, with the cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr on the opposite side of the Shatt al-Arab, and Kuwait to the southwest, opposite from Bubiyan Island and Warbah Island, near the Iraqi city of Umm Qasr.

Al-Faw, the only significant town on the peninsula and its namesake, is a fishing town and port which during Saddam Hussein's presidency featured the main naval base of the Iraqi Navy. The remainder of the al-Faw peninsula is otherwise lightly inhabited, with few civilian buildings or settlements and most of its few residents involved in the fishing, oil, or shipping industries. It is the site of a number of important oil installations, most notably Iraq's two main oil tanker terminals: Khor al-Amaya and Mina al-Bakr, due to its chief importance as a strategic location controlling access to the Shatt al-Arab waterway and thus access to the port of Basra.

The Mesopotamian campaign or Mesopotamian front (Turkish: Irak Cephesi) was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the British Empire, with troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from the British Raj, and the Central Powers, primarily the Ottoman Empire, over control of Ottoman Iraq. It started after the British Fao Landing in 1914, which sought to protect Anglo-Persian Oil Company oil fields in Khuzestan province and the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The front later evolved into a larger campaign that sought to capture the city of Baghdad and divert Ottoman forces from other fronts. It ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Iraq and further partition of the Ottoman Empire.

The British advanced from Al-Faw to the city of Basra to secure British oil fields in nearby Iran. Following the landings, British forces won a string of victories along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including the repulse of an Ottoman attempt to retake Basra at the Battle of Shaiba. The advance stalled when the British reached the town of Kut, south of the city of Baghdad in December 1915. The Siege of Kut led to the defeat of the British force, later called "the worst defeat of the Allies in World War I". The British re-organised and began a new campaign to take Baghdad. Despite fierce Ottoman resistance, Baghdad was captured in March 1917 and the Ottomans suffered more defeats until the Armistice at Mudros.