Hawija

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"Hawija (Arabic: الحويجة, Al Hawyjah‎) (Kurdish "hawij" for wild carrot) is the centre of Al-Hawija District in the Kirkuk province of Iraq, 30 miles south of Kirkuk, and north of Baghdad. The district has approximately 450,000 inhabitants, about 98%t of them Sunni Arabs and the rest mostly Sunni Turkmens. Most of the inhabitants live in rural areas. Hawija or Al Hawijah is also called Hawija Al-Ubaid is inhabited by Al-Ubaid tribe, Dulaim tribe, Al Jubour, Shammar tribes.

During the Iraq War, U.S. and Iraqi forces experienced numerous lethal attacks in the area from Sunni insurgents. As of March 2006, the area of Hawija was considered one of the most dangerous in all of Iraq with US soldiers and the foreign press corps in Baghdad dubbing Hawija "Anbar of the North," a reference to the violence wracked province in Western Iraq.

As of June 2014, the Iraqi Army has withdrawn from the area of Hawijah and Kirkuk. Leaving Kurdish military forces, known as peshmerga, to man checkpoints around Kirkuk. Hawija is now currently controlled by tribal fighters affiliated with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)."

Source: Adapted fom Wikipedia

Hawija is a strategic hub for ISIS in the north, between Tikrit and Mosul. During the advances of the Iraqi army on Tikrit and Peshmerga advances on Kirkuk outskirts, numerous ISIS members retreated to the city, bolstering defences to a expected joint attack of Peshmerga, Iraqi Army, and Shia Militias.

Hawija District

Hawija has been part of Kirkuk governorate since the creation of
the Iraqi state in 1932, although it was previously called Tal Ali and
Al-Malha subdistricts within Kirkuk district before being upgraded
to district status in 1961. The district has historically expanded by
incorporating Riyad subdistrict in the east and Zab subdistrict in the
west (Republican Decree no. 514 of 1984). Zab was previously part
of Ninewa governorate (Shirgat district), and is the only part of
Hawija added from another governorate in recent times.

Unlike many of the other areas of Kirkuk governorate, and presumably
because of its largely Arab population, Hawija was not
subject to the destruction of villages and forced population transfers
under the previous regime.