Qurac



Qurac was a nation located in the Middle East. It bordered Saudi Arabia to the west, Iraq to the north, and the Persian Gulf to the east.

Earth-One
The Republic of Qurac was located along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. It was once part of the Ottoman Empire until Arab and British forces, under the command of Faisal of Iraq and Allenby of England, and under the tactical command of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), overthrew the Ottomans after the First World War. Qurac became a British holding and remained so until World War II. Premier Al-Gailiani of Iraq, an ardent Arab nationalist, replaced the moderate Iraqi government with a pro-Axis one before he was force from power.

Hassan al-Sadr, an Al-Gailiani supporter, fled south, took the name of Suleiman after the legendary Arab sheik who fought Richard the Lionhearted, and gathered an army of followers. Aided by German funds, al-Sadr established the nation of Qurac and allowed the Nazis to build the fortress Jotunheim in the mountainous southern section of Qurac, which overlooked the Persian and Oman Gulfs. Suleiman was defeated in the war, and Qurac was declared a republic. This form of government lasted until the 1970s, when General Marlo led an anti-West and anti-Israeli military coup that overthrew the civilian regime and established a military dictatorship.

Previously a prosperous land due to its vast oil reserves, Qurac was plunged into the depths of economic hardship when Marlo's government, conducting underground testing of a nuclear device, contaminated the oil fields. Marlo blamed the nuclear explosion on Western operatives seeking to overthrow his regime; he used this reasoning as an excuse to embark on a course of international terrorism against the West and its interests. Taking his lead from the neighboring nation of Bialya, Marlo turned Qurac into a center for the exportation of terrorists. His activities brought him into conflicts with everyone from Superman, the Teen Titans and the Suicide Squad, to various factions of the U.S. intelligence community (including Checkmate). In fact, Superman invaded the country, attacking and decimating the Quraci armed forces, while Checkmate had attempted to foment a civil war within its borders by backing pro-Western rebels.

This repeated conflict with metahuman heroes led Marlo to create his own superpowered terrorist-for hire group known as the Jihad, which operated out of the restored Jotunheim fortress. The fortress, and the Jihad along with it, were destroyed in an atomic explosion detonated by Colonel Rick Flag of the Suicide Squad, who himself perished in the blast. President Marlo has sworn to rebuild the Jihad, but without the resources of Jotunheim, the task proved extremely difficult.

Geography
Qurac's major cities were Al Kuwait in the north, and Bahrein, Doha and Abu Dhabi in the south. Vast stretches of Qurac consisted of uninhabitable desert; the oases were home to tribes of nomadic Bedouins, many of whom continued fighting against Marlo's dictatorial regime.

Appearance
DC Heroes RPG sourcebook:
 * The Atlas of the DC Universe (1990)