Ninawa Governorate

Ninawa Governorate

Nineveh Governorate (Syriac-Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nīnwē), (Arabic: نینوى Nīnawā‎, Kurdish: Neynewa, is a governorate in northern Iraq, which contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It has an area of 37,323 square kilometres (3.7323×1010 m2) and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and 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 Dohuk 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 US-led troops and the Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents had moved to Nineveh 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 (then Brigadier General) Carter Ham as commander of the multi-national brigade for northern Iraq. During the American occupation, the civil government was under Herro Mustafa, the head of the local office of the Coalition Provisional Authority. She was a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the United States. Mustafa administered the province through her nominees on the provincial council and through 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. Duraid Kashmoula resigned in 2009, and in April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor.