Bomb explodes, civilian kidnapped in Dalouiya

SALAH EL-DIN, IraqiNews.com: A bomb exploded on Monday, injuring a civilian, while unknown gunmen kidnapped another civilian in eastern Salah el-Din, a police source said. “A local-made bomb went off targeting a civilian car in al-Sidieq village in Dalouiya, east of Tikrit, injuring the driver,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “A five-men armed group kidnapped a farmer in Bishkan village in eastern Dalouiya,” he added. “His family said that he was on his way to the market to sell his product, when the gunmen stopped him and took him to unknown place,” he noted. 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 12th century. Salahuddin province is a variant version of the province’s name. SH (S) 1