Hasakah: Syrian city on the Khabour river, northeastern Syria, and capital of the Hasakah governorate. The city lost its importance during the Ottoman era. Assyrian refugees from Iraq settled in Hasakah in 1932. Today, it is the center of the fertle Al-Jazirah region, which is Syria's main source of cereals and other products. In the mid-1950s petrolium was discovered northeast of Hasakah. Population (1985 estimate) 98,607. The Haskah Governorate includes 3 districts: Qameshli, Malkiyah and Ras el-Ein.