Where is diyala province

The Diyala Province is regarded as having the oldest agricultural land in the world, as well as some of the rarest monuments in Iraq. The university focuses on a combination of theoretical and practical teaching to offer students the best quality education for future employment. The college of engineering and college of education and basic education were the first colleges to be established at the university.

This has since expanded to cover 14 colleges in total. From basic education to law to agriculture, students have a range of courses to choose from in humanities, sciences, education, agriculture, economics and medicine. Students also have access to several resources and facilities to enhance their studies, such as the internet and computer centre, health centre, information unit and the scientific office.

A Diyala security officer told Al-Monitor in April that Iran-linked PMU had abandoned some of their positions in the province the previous month, allegedly due to concerns about being targeted by US drone strikes, and that weaponry left behind had then been taken by IS fighters.

One of the towns in Diyala long known as being troublesome and a flashpoint for sectarian tensions is Jalawla. This journalist reported from the frontline with peshmerga forces during the fight to retake Jalawla from IS in September Peshmerga forces won it back in late November , but Iraq's central government forces took both Kirkuk and Jalawla away from the peshmerga in October , after a referendum on independence of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq KRI that Baghdad had been opposed to.

Many in the area are still unhappy with the security forces in the area, while security officials have claimed that some tribes — such as the Karwi — still have many IS affiliates among them. Tensions between the KRI and Baghdad over territory and other issues continue to result in security gaps and a lack of coordination susceptible to exploitation by insurgent groups. In recent years, Diyala has been one of the Iraqi provinces with the highest number of attacks by IS cells and has seen attacks using similar methods to the most recent one.

The gruesome attack had occurred Oct. All of this occurred amidst calls in Baghdad and efforts in Abu Ghraib to dismantle other SoI groups.

However, the fact that many of the Sunni arrested were Sunni Sons of Iraq bred fear among Sunnis of a power grab. This region has diverse population made up of Sunni, Kurds, and Shia.

Since as early as , Kurdish Peshmerga Forces have operated in and occupied the Khanaqin region, first at the request of the Coalition Forces and later, in , at the request of the Government of Iraq GoI. The GoI refuses to cede control of these districts of mixed ethnicity claiming many of them have large Arab and Turkmen populations.

While the Stephan de Mistura of the United Nations, is addressing this conflict district by district, the dispute caused GoI President Talabani to veto the election law passed in the Parliament in late July Below is description of the events that have unfolded in this region over the past several weeks.

The Commander of the 34th Peshmerga Brigade, Gen. Nazim Kirkuki refused to withdraw stating he had orders from his chain of command in the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG to remain in place. Despite the agreement of the previous week, ISF entered the city of Khanaqin early in the week of August 24th.

They set up checkpoints and issued an ultimatum from Maliki that required all Kurdish forces to vacate government buildings and cede control of Khanaqin to ISF. The negotiations resulted in a tenuous solution. Neither side will be permitted to enter without the invitation from those local security forces.

It is unclear whether the Peshmerga will completely withdraw from the Khanaqin or what if any ISF presence will remain in the city. Richard A. Oppel Jr. Aswat al-Iraq. Abu Muqawama Blog. Hundreds of Islamists were killed. A few hundred remained and went to the mountains — of course, with the support of the Iranian government. Provocative gestures by Shiite-led armed groups in the area have meanwhile long been blamed for sowing the seeds of more sectarian grievances in the area, especially around the Khanaqin and Jalawla areas.

When this journalist returned to report from Jalawla in early following its liberation from IS and after she had been on the frontlines with peshmerga forces in their attempts to retake the multiethnic city in September , for example, a green Shiite banner raised atop the minaret of a Sunni mosque was pointed out in anger to her by some natives of the area. Shiite-led PMU operating in the area have also been accused of preventing Sunni internally displaced persons from returning to their homes in some areas of the province.

Such grievances may be used by IS to foster instability in the area and detract from the brutality of their recent killings. The Islamic State's gruesome killing of a sheikh and some of his relatives by rigging his corpse with explosives has led to security concerns in the multiethnic region bordering Iran, long a hotbed for extremism and susceptible to sectarianism. Iraqi government forces celebrate while holding an Islamic State IS group flag after they claimed they had gained complete control of the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, on Jan.