Nineveh Governorate

Nineveh Governorate (: نینوى, : Nīnewē, : مووسڵ transliteration: Mûsil, : ܢܝܢܘܐ transliteration: Nīnwē) is a governorate in northern Iraq, which contains the ancient Assyrian city of. It has an area of 37,323 squared kilometers and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and provincial capital is, which lies across the river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and it included the present-day Dohuk Governorate.

Today it is only nominally under the control of the Kingdom of Iraq, and is disputed with the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan, which has been occupying large parts of the region since the 1990s. With the beginning of the Islamic State conflict in 2014, the Kurds have occupied the city of Mosul after taking it from militants of the (ISIS). Iraq continues to claim the region is under its control and refuses to recognize the Kurdish occupation of it, calling it illegal.