Mosul (/moʊˈsuːl/; Arabic: الموصل‎ al-Mawṣil; Kurdish: مووسڵ‎ Mûsil; North Mesopotamian Arabic: el-Mōṣul; Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nînwe,Turkish: Musul), is a city of over a million people in northern Iraq, some 400 km north of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks. In the early 21st century, the majority of its population was Arab, with Assyrian, Iraqi Turkmen and Kurdish minorities. The city's population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2008 was estimated to be 1,800,000. Although half a million fled in 2014 it was still over a million that year. With the 2014 occupation by the terror organization ISIL, only Sunni Arabs remained in the city. It is currently the largest city controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. A large amount of displaced civilians returned as there was no longer a fear of an Iraqi army counter-offensive. In 2014 the population estimate before the takeover of the city by the terrorist organisation of ISIL was approximately more than 2,500,000 making it Iraq's third largest city by population following Basra.