4 civilians wounded in IED blast in Touz

SALAH AL-DIN / IraqiNews.com: Four civilians were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeted a billiards hall in Touz Khormato, the district mayor said on Tuesday. “The IED ripped through a billiards hall on the Baghdad-Touz highway in Salah al-Din province last night, leaving at least four civilians wounded and causing damage to the hall,” Muhammad Rasheed told IraqiNews.com. “The wounded were taken to a hospital in Touz Khormato district, (100 km) east of the city of Tikrit ,” the source 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. AmR (S) 1