Officer wounded by IED in Touz Khormato

SALAH AL-DIN / IraqiNews.com: An improvised explosive device went off near an Iraqi army vehicle south of the city of Touz Khormato on Sunday, leaving an officer in the rank of major wounded, a security source in Salah al-Din province said. “A time bomb went off as an Iraqi army vehicle was passing by near the Sarhad bridge, south of Touz Khormato, (80 km south of Kirkuk and 100 km east of Tikrit), wounding an officer and damaging the vehicle,” the source, who is from the Touz police, told IraqiNews.com. “The wounded officer was rushed to a hospital for treatment,” he said, not giving more details. 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