Samawah in the context of Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate

Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East or West Asia, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilometers (58 miles) northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers (67 miles) southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of ancient Larsa. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah.

Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC.By the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BC, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000–90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. After the end of the Early Dynastic period, with the rise of the Akkadian Empire, the city lost its prime importance. It had periods of florescence during the Isin-Larsa period, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods and throughout the Achaemenid (550–330 BC), Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to AD 224) periods, until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638.

Muthanna Governorate (Arabic: المثنى Al Muthannā) or Al Muthanna Province, is a province in Iraq, named after the 7th-century Arab general al-Muthanna ibn Haritha. It is in the south of the country, bordering Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The provincial capital is the city of Samawah.

The Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group, also known as the Japan Self-Defense Forces Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group (自衛隊イラク復興支援群; Jietai Iraku Fukkou Shiengun), was a battalion-sized, largely humanitarian contingent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces that was sent to Samawah, southern Iraq in early January 2004 and withdrawn by late July 2006. However, the last JASDF forces left Kuwait on December 18, 2008. Approximately 5,500 Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force members were present in Samawah between 2004 and 2006.

Their duties had included tasks such as water purification, reconstruction and reestablishment of public facilities, including medical facilities known as Public Health Centers, for the Iraqi people. While legally required to remain within noncombat zones, GSDF records revealed that Japanese troops were present in areas of active hostilities.