Cop wounded in car bomb blast near Tikrit

SALAH Al-DIN / IraqiNews.com: A Kurdish policeman on Thursday was injured in a car bomb explosion that occurred in the east of Tikrit city, Iraqi police said. “Today, a car rigged with explosives targeted a number of oil tankers belonging to the Kurdish security forces in Albo Ajeil village (15 km east of Tikrit), wounding a Kurdish policeman,” a police source told IraqiNews.com. The explosion caused damage to three of the trucks, which were heading to northern Iraq, 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. SS (S) 1