Siege of Kut

Siege of Kut
	Part of the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I
	; Charles Townshend and Halil Pasha after the fall of Kut
Date	7 December 1915 – 29 April 1916
Location	Kut-al-Amara, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)32°30′20″N 45°49′29″E / 32.50556°N 45.82472°E
Result	Ottoman victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Charles Townshend	Nureddin Pasha; Halil Pasha; Kazim Pasha; Ali İhsan Pasha; C.F. von der Goltz
Strength
25,000–45,000 besieged in Kut	25,000–80,000
Casualties and losses
30,000 dead or wounded; 13,164 captured including 6 generals	10,000 dead or wounded
	Location within Iraq Siege of Kut (Middle East)

The siege of Kut Al Amara (7 December 1915 – 29 April 1916), also known as the first battle of Kut, was the besieging of an 8,000-strong British Army garrison in the town of Kut, 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. In 1915, its population was around 6,500. Following the surrender of the garrison on 29 April 1916, the survivors of the siege were marched to imprisonment at Aleppo, during which many died. Historian Christopher Catherwood has called the siege "the worst defeat of the Allies in World War I". Ten months later, the British Indian Army, consisting almost entirely of newly recruited troops from Western India, conquered Kut, Baghdad and other regions in between in the fall of Baghdad.