What is "jalawla"

Jalawla (, also known as Celevla, or mistranslated as Jalula) is a town in Diyala Governorate, Iraq. It is located on the Diyala River 8 km north of As-Sadiyah.

In 2013 it had an estimated population of some 80,000 people. According to a tribal elder, the town is approximately 80% Sunni Arab, 10% Feyli Kurd and 10% Sunni Turkmen.

The Battle of Jalula took place in the town between the Sassanid Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate soon after the conquest of Ctesiphon. Historian Ibn al-Athir reports that the Persian losses in Jalawla reached 100,000 and the dead bodies has "Jellat" (filled the ground) so the area became known as Jalawla .

From August to November 2014 the city was mostly under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and local Arab tribes which seized the town from the Popular Mobilization Forces (Iraq) in Kurdistan Regional Government in August 2014.

On 23 November 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga recaptured the whole city.