QARUH ISLAND // The first time Col Abdullah Dashti, 49, raised a flag on a tiny island in Kuwait's southern waters, it was more than just an expression of patriotism; it signified the beginning of the end of an occupation that shook the entire region.
When he again planted a flagpole in Qaruh Island's sand on Tuesday, he began Kuwait's celebrations marking 20 years since Saddam Hussein's armies withered away in the face of an onslaught from a superior force.
"I'm very honoured and very proud to raise the flag once more," Col Dashti said. When he and two Kuwaiti sailors hung the flag from a tower on the island after it was recaptured by coalition forces, on January 25, 1991, "it was exactly like this", with scattered clouds hanging over the blue water lapping at the shores of the coral island, he said.
"The island was attacked by US marines and then they asked us to raise our flag. We started to look, but couldn't find one," he said. A US navy commando gave them their chance to make history when he gave them his own Kuwaiti flag.
The commemoration on Tuesday included a "re-enactment" of the Kuwaiti military storming the beach. Troops fired blanks and set off flares before charging from the beachhead, and navy frogmen emerged from the sea with a picture of the emir.
"This means a lot," said Brig Jassim al Ansari, 55, who was the commanding officer of one of the Kuwaiti ships involved in the operation. "This was the first piece of land liberated, and it boosted the morale of the whole of Kuwait: people inside and abroad."
About 20 boats, including Kuwaiti navy ships that took part in the battle 20 years ago, dhows and pleasure craft, circled the island, which is 40 kilometres from the Kuwaiti mainland. Approximately 300 military personnel and 100 civilians watched the ceremony, the first event to take place leading up to Liberation Day, which is observed on February 26.
Members of Kuwait's navy, which was composed of a handful of ships and headquartered in Bahrain during the Iraqi occupation, landed after US forces bombed the occupiers and cleared channels through the mined waters.
Brig al Ansari said: "There was no fight, they didn't even resist."
Col Dashti said the Kuwaiti navy was active throughout the occupation in search-and-rescue operations looking for American pilots who had ditched into the Gulf. He said the allies reclaimed the island - which is usually unoccupied save for a few coast guard personnel - as part of a 45-day operation to capture Iraqi scouts occupying nearby oil rigs and liberate Kuwait's offshore territories. Despite the fighting and a missile attack on one of the ships, no Kuwaiti military personnel died during hostilities.
Many Kuwaitis on the island for the commemorations were too young to remember the occupation. "It's like we can see it again, what happened," said Faisal al Zuwaied, 23, an engineering student representing the Kuwait Volunteer Work Centre at the ceremony. "They should keep doing this so that generations to come can remember the liberation."
Others at the re-enactment were among the hundreds of thousands of citizens who left the country or were unable to return while abroad. "We were expecting the liberation, the news kept saying 'soon, soon, soon', but it took seven months," said Fadel Jerman, 50, an adviser for Redo, a non-profit organisation in the renewable energy sector.
Mr Jerman was studying in Jordan when the Iraqi armies moved south, and was among the first citizens to return home - in early march of 1991 - where he began working as a translator and guide for the US Army Corps of Engineers.
"It wasn't just the liberation of our country; it was also the liberation of our families. We know what it's like to be homeless ... it was a tough experience," he said.
Since liberation, Kuwait's relationship with Iraq has been strained by debt and reparations, missing citizens and stolen artefacts. But recent diplomatic moves, such as the arrival of an Iraqi ambassador in Kuwait last year and the visit of Kuwait's prime minister to Baghdad this month, are paving the way for better ties.
"It won't happen again because the world has changed," said Ahmad Hussein, 43, a member of an international organisation of religious teachers, the Ulama of Islam. "That crazy thing that Saddam [did]: nobody would repeat it."
Mr Hussein was in jail with hundreds of others in Basra "for being Kuwaiti" when the coalition forces advanced on the city. He said the prisoners realised the liberation was under way when Iraqi troops started pouring into the city. Two weeks later, they were free.
"All the days we are free we must thank God for the liberation," the Shiite religious teacher said.
[ jcalderwood@thenational.ae ]
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
SPECS
Engine: Supercharged 3.5-litre V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 430Nm
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Price: From Dh450,000
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Silkhaus
Started: 2021
Founders: Aahan Bhojani and Ashmin Varma
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Property technology
Funding: $7.75 million
Investors: Nuwa Capital, VentureSouq, Nordstar, Global Founders Capital, Yuj Ventures and Whiteboard Capital
Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
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The specs
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Power: 725hp at 7,750rpm
Torque: 716Nm at 6,250rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
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Price: From Dh1,650,000
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Match info
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'O'
Author: Zeina Hashem Beck
Pages: 112
Publisher: Penguin Books
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Growdash
Started: July 2022
Founders: Sean Trevaskis and Enver Sorkun
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Restaurant technology
Funding so far: $750,000
Investors: Flat6Labs, Plus VC, Judah VC, TPN Investments and angel investors, including former Talabat chief executive Abdulhamid Alomar, and entrepreneur Zeid Husban
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Name: Colm McLoughlin
Country: Galway, Ireland
Job: Executive vice chairman and chief executive of Dubai Duty Free
Favourite golf course: Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club
Favourite part of Dubai: Palm Jumeirah
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
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The Old Slave and the Mastiff
Patrick Chamoiseau
Translated from the French and Creole by Linda Coverdale
UAE medallists at Asian Games 2023
Gold
Magomedomar Magomedomarov – Judo – Men’s +100kg
Khaled Al Shehi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -62kg
Faisal Al Ketbi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -85kg
Asma Al Hosani – Jiu-jitsu – Women’s -52kg
Shamma Al Kalbani – Jiu-jitsu – Women’s -63kg
Silver
Omar Al Marzooqi – Equestrian – Individual showjumping
Bishrelt Khorloodoi – Judo – Women’s -52kg
Khalid Al Blooshi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -62kg
Mohamed Al Suwaidi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -69kg
Balqees Abdulla – Jiu-jitsu – Women’s -48kg
Bronze
Hawraa Alajmi – Karate – Women’s kumite -50kg
Ahmed Al Mansoori – Cycling – Men’s omnium
Abdullah Al Marri – Equestrian – Individual showjumping
Team UAE – Equestrian – Team showjumping
Dzhafar Kostoev – Judo – Men’s -100kg
Narmandakh Bayanmunkh – Judo – Men’s -66kg
Grigorian Aram – Judo – Men’s -90kg
Mahdi Al Awlaqi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -77kg
Saeed Al Kubaisi – Jiu-jitsu – Men’s -85kg
Shamsa Al Ameri – Jiu-jitsu – Women’s -57kg
The specs: 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali
Price, base / as tested Dh207,846 / Dh220,000
Engine 6.2L V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque 624Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined 13.5L / 100km
THREE
Director: Nayla Al Khaja
Starring: Jefferson Hall, Faten Ahmed, Noura Alabed, Saud Alzarooni
Rating: 3.5/5
Sweet Tooth
Creator: Jim Mickle
Starring: Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Stefania LaVie Owen
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
PREMIER LEAGUE STATS
Romelu Lukaku's goalscoring statistics in the Premier League
Season/club/appearances (substitute)/goals
2011/12 Chelsea: 8(7) - 0
2012/13 West Brom (loan): 35(15) - 17
2013/14 Chelsea: 2(2) - 0
2013/14 Everton (loan): 31(2) - 15
2014/15 Everton: 36(4) - 10
2015/16 Everton: 37(1) - 18
2016/17 Everton: 37(1) - 25