Ninawa Governorate

Ninawa (; ; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ, Nīnwē) is a governorate (province) in northern Iraq, and the Arabic name for the biblical city of Nineveh in Assyria. It has an area of 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 greater 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 scathefree. In 2004, however, Mosul and Tal Afar were the scenes of fierce battles between US-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 ledden 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.
==Provincial politics==
===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%)
*Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, 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
*Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, 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/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 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.
==Districts==
*Akra
*Al-Ba'aj
*Al-Hamdaniya
*Al-Shikhan
*Hatra
*Mosul
*Shekhan
*Sinjar
*Tall Afar
*Tel Kaif
Note that Shekan and Akra is currently under the Kurdistan Regional Government control, as Mosul has no control over these two districts.
==Population throughout History==
1987 Census: 1,507,000Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series / Iraq / Tables
==References==
==See also==
*Ninawa governorate council election, 2005
*Nineveh
* Nineveh plains
*Iraq Inter-Agency Information & Analysis Unit Reports, Maps and Assessments of Iraq from the UN Inter-Agency Information & Analysis Unit
 
Category:Governorates of Iraq
Category:Assyria
Category:Chaldeans
Category:Fertile Crescent
ar:نينوى (محافظة)
arc:ܢܝܢܘܐ (ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ)
az:Ninəvə (el)
da:Ninawa
de:Ninawa
et:Nīnawá
es:Ninawa
eu:Ninawa
fr:Ninawa
id:Governorat Ninawa
he:מחוז נינוה
ku:Neynewa (parêzgeh)
ms:Pentadbiran Ninawa
nl:Ninawa
ja:ニーナワー県
pl:Niniwa (prowincja Iraku)
pt:Ninawa
ru:Найнава
simple:Ninawa Province
fi:Ninawa
sv:Ninawa
tg:Вилояти Нинаво
tr:Nineve ili
zh:尼尼微省