Kut [variants: Kut al Imara, Kut al `Amarah, Kut-al-Almarah, Kut-al-Imarah] is in southern Iraq, on the banks of the river Tigris. It is a port and a market center for grains, dates, fruit, and vegetables. Kut (an Arabic word for fort, which rhymes with foot) is located 170 km (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, inside a southern "no-fly'' zone set up by the United States and is patrolled by U.S. and British jets.
The Kut barrage (completed 1939) diverts water into irrigation channels. Upon completion in early 1943 of a rail spur from Kut al Imara to Ba'quba, the Khanaqin Lift consisted of barge from Basra to Kut al Imara, rail from there to Khanaqin, and road to Tabriz. In 1996 Russia and China signed deals to tap Iraqi oil fields, with few objections by the United States, presumably because both said they would respect the UN embargo. Russia will develop the West Qurna oil field, Iraq's largest oil pool. China will concentrate on the Ahdab field near Kut, also in oil-rich southern Iraq.

On 03 September 1996 a US missile attack hit surface-to-air missile sites and radar installations near the Tallil air base in southwestern Iraq, the Euphrates River city of Nasiriyah, al-Iskandariyah and al-Kut.

In July 1997, the Iranian armed opposition Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MEK] announced that Iranian agents attacked their military training camp in Kut, Iraq, with ten mini-katyusha rockets.

On 29 September 1997 eight Iranian warplanes raided targets inside Iraqi territory in Daiyla and Kut provinces. Several buildings at a base near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, sustained some damage. Iranian attacks were believed to be directed at bases in Iraq that belong to an Iranian opposition group, The Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Warriors. the attacks were simultaneous, with five Phantom fighter-bombers striking a base near the city of Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad, and four jets hitting a base near the town of Jalula (130 km northeast of Baghdad)

Source

Iranians, Russian oil fields, SCUD attacks