25 tons of cannonballs found in west of Samarra

SALAH EL-DIN / IraqiNews.com: Police forces on Friday found 25 tons of cannonballs in west of Samarra city, a security source said. “The forces found a large depot of explosives in al-Jazeera region in west of Samarra . It contains more than 25 tons of Austrian-made cannonballs and other types of shells,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “The forces detonated the cannonballs in cooperation with the U.S. forces in the region,” he added. Salah al-Din has an area of 24,751 square kilometers (9,556.4 sq mi). The estimated population for 2003 was 2,146,500 people. Located in Central Iraq, north of Baghdad , it is a mainly Sunni province with only two Shiite districts, namely Balad and al-Dujail. Its capital city is Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It also includes other important districts like Baiji, north of Tikrit , 175 km north of Baghdad . The province also contains the significantly larger city of Samarra . Before 1976 the province was part of the governorate of Baghdad . It is named after Saladin (written Salah ah Din in modern Arabic), an ethnic Kurd and hero of the 12 th century. Salahuddin province is a variant version of the province’s name. SH (S) 1