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Diyala Governorate محافظة ديالى
Governorate
Coordinates: 33°53′N 45°4′E / 33.883°N 45.067°E / 33.883; 45.067
Country	Iraq
Capital	Baqubah
Governor	Muthana Al-Timimi
Area
• Total	17,685 km (6,828 sq mi)
Population
• Total	1,637,226
HDI (2017)	0.672 medium

Diyala Governorate (Template:Lang-ar Muḥāfaẓat Diyālā) or Diyala Province is a governorate in central-eastern Iraq.

Provincial government

• Governor: Muthana al-Timimi
• Deputy Governor: Mohammed Jassim al-Jubouri

Council

Summary of the 20 April 2013 Diyala Governorate election results

Party/Coalition		Allied national parties	Leader	Seats	Change	Votes
	Diyala's National Alliance	State of Law Coalition Citizens Alliance Liberal Coalition	Nouri Al-Maliki Ammar al-Hakim Moqtada al-Sadr	12	7	170,292
	Iraqi Diyala	Muttahidoon Arabian Al Iraqia	Usama al-Nujayfi Saleh al-Mutlaq	10	5	149,535
	Brotherhood and Coexistence Alliance List	KDP PUK		3	4	49,415
	Al Iraqia National and United Coalition		Ayad Allawi	2	1	27,670
	Determined to Build		Mizhir Taha Hamad Mohamed	1		17,935
	Diyala's New Coalition		Saleh Birsim Khalil Ibrahim	1		13,980
	Diyala's Loyal Sons' Bloc		Suhad Ismael Abdul Rahim Saleh			6,053
	Iraq's Benevolence and Generosity List					4,510
	Diyala's Will Coalition		Adnan Abdul Karim Abed Ali Omran			3,846
	Iraqi Commission of Independent Civil Society Organizations		Bassel Abdul Wahab Mohammad Hussain			3,546
	New Generation Bloc		Zuhair Nawruz Darwish Mahmud Hassan			2,963
	Arabs' Frontier		Jawad Kathem Hamad Latif			2,851
	Hazem Mustafa Ismael Isa Al Biyati	Independent				2,393
	Free Iraqi Coalition		Zeid Abed Tayeh Abawi			2,133
	The Advocate's Party		Saad Jasem Naser Hussein			913
	Law Advocate Knights' Bloc					749
	National White Bloc		Saad Abdullah Hamud Thamer			527
Total				29		459,311
Sources: al-Sumaria - Diyala Coalitions

Geography

Diyala Governorate extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baqubah. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometres (6,828 sq mi).

A large portion of the province is drained by the Diyala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diyala's main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large groves. The province also contains one of the largest olive groves in the Middle East. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. The Hamrin Mountains pass through the governorate.

Population

The population and the ethnic composition of this province has been in a major state of flux since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and the removal of the Sunni Arab government of Saddam Hussein from Baghdad. That government and those before it, had all been Sunni Arabs and as such, supportive of the Sunni Arab interests at the expense of all other ethnic and confessional minorities such as the Shia, Kurds and even Iraqi Turkmen. This changed drastically starting in 2003, with the Sunni Arabs becoming the ones subjected to intimidation and expulsion all over the province.Presently, an estimated population of some 1,800,000 people live.Sunni Arabs are the overwhelming majority in Diyala and they were the dominant sect until 2003, after which the Shiite militias expelled hundreds of thousands of Sunni Arabs and killed thousands of them. Sunni Arabs, and now Sunni Arabs, make up 70-75% of Diyala province, as well as the Kurds, most of whom in Diyala embrace Sunni Islam and Turkmen, who in turn convert to Sunni Islam. Sunni Kurds and Sunni Turkmen make up 10-13%, and Shiites make up about 12-20% from the province In contrast, the Feyli Kurds who were deported from this area from the 1960 to 1990s by various Sunni Arab governments in Baghdad, are returning – as have other Kurds. They now dominate the entire Khanaqin district and all others bordering on Iran in this province. At the lowest point during the rule of Saddam Hussein, their numbers had fallen to just 0.7% of the total. Today, they are around 3% as they take up their old homes in places such a Jalula/Jalawla and Al-Sadiyah living together with 3% Sunni kurds, make kurds constitute no less than one third of the province. The rest of the residents are Iraqi Turkmen (around 6%) predominantly in Kifri mostly Sunnis with Shia turkmen being 1% of the province, but in smaller pockets at Jalawla, Al-Sadiyah, Miqdadiya and other smaller pockets dispersed around the province, as well .

Administrative districts

Diyala Governorate comprises six districts, listed below with their areas and populations as estimated in 2003:

Cities, towns, and villages

• Baqubah (provincial capital)
• Nahrawan
• Muqdadiyah
• Hebheb
• Khanaqin
• Balad Ruz
• Al Khalis
• Bani sa'ad
• Jalawla (or Jalula)
• Al-Sadiyah
• Camp Ashraf
• Dwelah
• Kingirban
• Marfu Village
• Village of Nye
• Udame
• Al Mansouryah
• Kan’aan
• Al Wajehiya
• Al Muntheriya
• Abu Saydah
• Buhriz
• Mandali
• Qaryat Imam ʽAskar
• Kifri
• Qara Tapa

Infrastructure

The Diyala Province boasts the Diyala Media Center which has one of the Middle East's tallest radio and television antennas at 349 metres (1,047 ft). The Diyala Media Center was built under contract by a Japanese architectural firm in 1989. It is one of Iraq's few independent radio and television stations that offer local television and radio news coverage as well as rebroadcasting state-run television.

Civil unrest/Iraq war

There is evidence that Al-Qaeda in Iraq moved its base of operations from Anbar province to Diyala in 2006 and during late 2006, Baqubah and much of the Diyala province were reported to have come under Sunni insurgent control. This insurgent control is reported to have continued through 2007 and into early 2008.

On May 11, 2007, Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the Multination Division North said he needed more troops in order to contain the current level of violence in the Diyala province, this coming in the recent wake of a troop "surge", involuntary recalls by the U.S. military, and the public debate about the level of commitment from the U.S. government. By mid-2007 the Islamic State of Iraq, already holding Baqubah and most of the province under its control, declared its capital to be Baqubah.

In June 2007, US forces launched Operation Arrowhead Ripper with night air assaults in Baqubah. By August 19, Baqubah was largely secured, although some insurgent presence remained in the city and surrounding areas. Fighting continued in the Diyala River valley but by the beginning of October, US and Iraqi forces held most of the province while the insurgents were in retreat to the north and west. On October 27 the Islamic State of Iraq attacked a police base in Baqubah, killing 28 Iraqi policemen and police recruits, showing that insurgent cells still remain in the province.

In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remaining insurgents following the Diyala campaign between 2006 and 2007.

Mid-2008 saw many changes in Diyala province with an increased effort by U.S. Forces and a substantial Iraqi Army presence, and in the Baqubah region, Islamic State of Iraq's activity was dramatically hampered, and the Sons of Iraq program served only to further weaken Islamic State in Iraq.

Declaration of autonomy

In December 2011, the governing council in Diyala province declared itself a semi-autonomous region within Iraq. This comes two months after Saladin Governorate made a similar declaration. The council in Diyala, using Article 119 of the Iraqi Constitution as justification, made the declaration because of suspicion of the Shi'a-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Unlike Salahuddin province however, Diyala province is more ethnically and religiously mixed, and such an announcement led to the outbreak of protests in the province.

See also

• Hisham al-Hayali, former governor
• Battle of Baqubah
• 2004 Baqubah bombing
• 15 July 2008 Baquba bombings
• 15 September 2008 Balad Ruz bombing
• 23 April 2009 Iraqi suicide attacks
• 3 March 2010 Baqubah bombings
• 2014 Musab bin Omair mosque massacre

References

1. "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "Iraqi Deputy Governor Sentenced To Death for Armed Attacks - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". www.al-monitor.com. Archived from the original on 2012-12-14.
4. Biggest Olive Groves in Middle East – in Diyala
5. COSIT (Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology), Baghdad.
6. NGO Co-ordination Committee.
7. "Republic of iraq (IQ): Asia/Iraq/Diyala". Tageo.com. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
8. Engel, Richard (December 27, 2006). "Reporting under al-Qaida control". Blogging Baghdad: The Untold Story. MSNBC. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
9. Engel, Richard (January 17, 2007). "Dangers of the Baghdad plan". Worldblog. MSNBC. Archived from the original on November 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
10. "DoD Special Security Operations Briefing with Maj. Gen. Mixon from Iraq". News Transcript. U.S. Department of Defense. May 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
11. "Iraq's Diyala province demands semi-autonomous status". Xinhua. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
12. Hammoudi, Laith. "A second Iraqi province seeks autonomy from Baghdad". Miami Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2011.

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