Ninawa Governorate.html

Country	Iraq
Ninawa Governorate

Coordinates: 36°0′N 42°28′E / 36, 42.467
Capital	Mosul
Area
- Total	37,323 km² (14,410.5 sq mi)
Population (2003)
- Total	2,453,000
Main language(s)	Arabic Kurdish Assyrian Turkmen Shabaki

Ninawa (Arabic: نینوى, Kurdish: Neynewa, Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nîněwâ) is a governorate (province) in northern Iraq, and the Arabic name for the biblical city of Nineveh in Assyria. It has an area of 37,323 square kilometers (14,410.5 sq mi) and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and the provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Tal Afar is also a major city within the region. Prior to 1976 it was called Mosul Province and also included the present day Dahuk Governorate

Its two main cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged relatively unscathed. In 2004, however, Mosul and Tal Afar were the scenes of fierce battles between U.S.-led troops and the Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents had moved to Ninawa after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004.

After the US invasion in 2003, the military government of the province was led initially by (then Lieutenant General) David Petraeus as commander of the 101st Airborne Division and later by BG Carter Ham as commander of the multi-national brigade for northern Iraq. During the American occupation, the civil government was led by the head of the local office of the Coalition Provisional Authority Herro Mustafa, a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the United States. She administered the province through her nominees on the provincial council and in particular various members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim Governor of the province and in September of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected Governor in January 2005.

1 Provincial Politics
2 Districts
3 Population throughout History
4 References
5 See also

Provincial Politics

Provincial Government

Governor: Duraid Kashmoula [1]
Deputy Governor: Khasro Goran [2]
Provincial Council Chairman (PCC): Hisham al-Hamdani [3]

Provincial Elections

Since no real census has been taken for decades, the election results are the only indicator of the province's ethnic distribution:

2005 December

Sunni Arab Group - 324,518 (47%)
Kurdish Group - 156,476 (19%)
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group - 91,661 (11%)
Sunni/Assyrian Group - 81,976 (10%)
Shia Arab Group - 61,083 (7%)
Yezidi Group - 18,618 (1%)
Assyrian Group - 12,323 (1%)

2005 January

Kurdish Group - 42,000
Shia Group - 23,000
Sunni Group - 56,000
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group - 21,000
Assyrian Group - 3,500
Yezidi Group - 3,200
Turkman Group - 1,800

Proposed Christian Autonomous Region

Many Assyrian and Chaldean leaders are pressing for a Christian autonomous region in Nineveh. The plan has not been taken seriously by national Iraqi leaders, but has a strong proponent in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Finance Sarkis Aghajan, himself an Assyrian and a prominent figure in the Kurdish government. Minister Sarkis has claimed that the autonomous region he envisions would stretch from the Syrian border to the north at Fishkabor to Hamdaniyah. He says it will have its own parliament, executive council, constitution, budget, logo, and flag. [4]

Districts

Note that Akra and Shekan are currently under the Kurdistan Regional Government control, as Mosul has no control over these two districts.^{citation needed}

Population throughout History

1987 Census: 1,507,000¹

References

^ Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series / Iraq / Tables