During the British occupation of Iraq, the British used al-Rumaitha, at that time a small village, as a military camp to support the supply and transportation of British forces moving from Basra and Nasiriya to Baghdad. In 1920, the Iraqi revolt against the British began in al-Rumaitha on 30 June, after the British arrested Sheikh of the al-Duwalim tribe. Members of his tribe mounted a raid on the government holding facility and freed him. The city also supported the anti-British 1941 Iraqi coup d'état and participated in the anti-British Al-Wathbah uprising of 1948.