Basra is a city in southern Iraq. It is the country’s second-largest city and its main port, on the Shatt al-Arab river near the Persian Gulf, so ships can reach it from the sea. In the first Gulf War it was a centre of people who stood against Saddam Hussein. In 2003, during the invasion of Iraq, there was heavy fighting there; British forces then held the city from 2003 to 2007. In English it is a place name, always with a capital B. You will hear it in news about Iraq, oil, and ports, not as an everyday object-word.