al-Hawijah
| Al-Hawijah | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| location | |||
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| Coordinates | 35 ° 19 ′ N , 43 ° 47 ′ E | ||
| Country |
 Iraq
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| Governorate | Kirkuk | ||
| Basic data | |||
| height | 190 m | ||
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Al-Hawijah ( Arabic الحويجة, DMG al-Ḥawīǧa ; Kurdish Hawij ) is the center of the al-Hawidscha district in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk and is located about 57 km southwest of the city of Kirkuk and about 300 km north of Baghdad .
population
Around 400,000 people live in the al-Hawijah district, the majority of whom are Sunni Arabs. Large Arab tribes are the Shammar , the Dulaimi , the al-Jubur and the al-Ubaid, after which the city is sometimes called Hawidschat al-Ubaid . Most of the residents live in the countryside.
history
After the Iraq war
After the end of the Iraq war in 2003, the US and Iraqi armies suffered some losses from Sunni insurgents in the al-Hawijah area.
The closest American base was Forward Operating Base McHenry , which was established in 2003 by the Alpha Company . The crew of FOB McHenry under Captain Scott W. Carpenter experienced 15 months from April 2004 one of the bloodiest periods during the occupation.
On 6 December 2006 a modified hit -air missile a Humvee and killed five soldiers. Al-Hawijah was considered one of the most dangerous places in Iraq in 2006 and has been compared to the insecure governorate of al-Anbar further south.
After the American troops withdrew
After the end of the occupation, conflicts arose between the Shiite and Sunni populations in Iraq . The disempowered Sunnis felt neglected by the Shiite government under Nuri al-Maliki .
On April 23, 2013, there were protests against the government in al-Hawijah, which were violently suppressed, killing 27 people. With the violence that followed over the next few days, the number of victims rose to 215.
Suspicion and violence widened the gap between the residents of al-Hawijah and the government. As a result, the Sunnis sided with the terrorist Islamic State during the 2014 Iraq crisis . The government troops had already evacuated large parts of the Kirkuk governorate. The Kurdish Peshmerga took complete control of the city of Kirkuk on June 12, 2014 . Attempts by IS to take Kirkuk failed. Since then, IS has controlled the southern part of the governorate with al-Hawijah.
On October 21, 2015, Kurdish, Iraqi and American special forces launched an attack on a prison in al-Hawijah, freeing 69 IS prisoners.
According to the government troops, the city center was recaptured on October 4, 2017. The city center had been completely liberated by the army, police and paramilitary units. The advance will continue in order to retake the entire city from IS.
Web links
Individual evidence
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^ Iraqi Sunni protest clashes in Hawija leave many dead . In: BBC News , April 23, 2013, accessed October 7, 2017.
Ned Parker: Iraq violence sparks fears of a Sunni revolt . In: Los Angeles Times , April 23, 2013, accessed October 7, 2017.
Iraq's bloody election: Polls and protests . In: The Economist , April 27, 2013, accessed October 7, 2017. - ↑ US soldier killed during hostage rescue in Iraq. tagesschau.de , October 22, 2015, archived from the original on October 22, 2015 ; accessed on October 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Iraqi army announces recapture of IS stronghold Hawija . APA article on derStandard.at , October 5, 2017, accessed on October 7, 2017.