Call of Duty: Kuwait withdraws approval for popular video game which features Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

Kuwait has withdrawn approval for the popular video game Call of Duty, which features the appearance of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Middle East nation has not acknowledged the effective banning of the game – which is a key offering of Microsoft-owned developer Activision and is due to be released on Friday.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set, in part, in the 1990s Gulf War and follows CIA operators fighting in the US and the Middle East.

Game-play trailers show burning oil fields – a reminder for Kuwaitis who saw Iraqi forces set fire to their fields, causing vast ecological and economic damage.

Iraqi troops were said to have set fire to over 700 wells.

The song Firestarter by The Prodigy plays at times as well.

Images of Hussein and Iraq’s old three-star flag also appear in footage released by the game’s developers.

A country’s respective authorities need to assign an age certificate rating for a game to be sold within a territory – something Kuwait has not done.

The game’s popular multiplayer section includes what appears to be a desert shootout in Kuwait, called Scud after the Soviet missiles Hussein fired in the war.

Another map is called Babylon – after the ancient Iraqi city.

Activision acknowledged in a statement that the game “has not been approved for release in Kuwait”.

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“At this time, the title will not be available for release in [the] region. As a result, all pre-orders in Kuwait will be cancelled and refunded to the original point of purchase. We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider and allow players in Kuwait to enjoy this all-new experience in the Black Ops series,” the company added.

Call of Duty, which began in 2003, is a first-person shooter game set across various conflicts in recent history.

It has expanded into an empire worth billions of pounds but has faced past controversy as its gameplay entered the realm of geopolitics.

Both China and Russia have previously banned chapters and in 2009 the game allowed players to take part in a militant attack on a Russian airport, killing civilians.