field hospital was constructed in the town. Many Polish prisoners of war, who escaped Russia and attempted to link up with Commonwealth forces in Khanaqin, arrived at the town in September 1942. They would remain in the town but many perished and a cemetery was built in the town for them. Maintenance of the Khanaqin War Cemetery was later abandoned and a memorial was built in Baghdad. In 2020, the cemetery was damaged by 'extremists'. The town experienced shelling by Iran during Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s and its people were displaced. Peshmerga captured the town in March 1991 during the uprisings in Iraq and again in April 2003 during U.S. invasion of Iraq. In the December 2005 parliamentary election, the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan won the city with 99.4%. In the same year, locals protested and wanted Khanaqin to be a part of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region under PUK rule. In September 2008, Peshmerga withdrew from the city allowing Iraqi police to control the city. The town experienced protests against the shuffle. As part of a compromise, Kurdistan Region was allowed to administer the city with Asayish presence, but Peshmerga would ultimately enter the city again in September 2011. Peshmerga withdrew from the city again in October 2017 which made the city witness frequent security breaches. Demographics Ethnicity In 1947, out of the 25,700 people in the town, 20,560 (80%) were Kurds. In the 1957 census, Kurds constituted 74.6% of the population, while Arabs were 23.7% and the Turkmen population stood at 1.6%. In 1965, the numbers stood at 72.1%, 26.2% and 1.7% for Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens, respectively. During the 1970s, the Arabization efforts by Iraq intensified, and the 1977 census showed that the Arab population had become 47.5% of the population, while Kurds were 45% and Turkmens, 6.1%. In 1987, the Arab population stood at 49.5%, the Kurdish population at 45.8% and the Turkmen population at 4.7%. In 1997, Arabs were 54.7% of the population, while Kurds were 39.4% and Turkmens were 5.8%. The Arabization of Khanaqin was almost entirely reversed after 2003 by the PUK. Khanaqin mayor Muhammad Amin Hassan Hussein stated in 2014 that the Arab population fell to 1% in 2003. Religion The majority of Khanaqin are Shia Muslims but a significant Sunni Muslim minority also exists. In 2020, one Christian remained in the city, as well as some Yarsans. Alwand Bridge Alwand