LLoyd George is rebuked by Mr. Punch over the Report on the British Invasion of...

In November 1914, British and Indian troops, sent to the Persian Gulf to protect British oil interests at Abadan, invaded the Ottoman province of Mesopotamia; after initial success, they were defeated in 1915 at Kut-al-Amara after a siege of 147 days and 11,800 British and Indian soldiers were forced to surrender; the defeat caused shock in Britain especially following the disaster at Gallipoli and a parliamentary commission was set up to investigate the humiliation of British troops by the Turks; although in March 1917, the British army had succeeded in entering Baghdad, it is estimated that more than 31,000 soldiers from the British and Indian armies had died in Iraq in combat or from disease; David Lloyd George (1863-1945) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 1916-22 Coalition Government of the Liberals and Conservatives was heavily criticised by the press in Britain;