Tikrit

Tikrit (Arabic: تِكْرِيت Tikrīt [ˈtɪkriːt]) is a city in Iraq, located 140 kilometers (87 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 220 kilometers (140 mi) southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. As of 2012[update], it had a population of approximately 160,000.[2] Originally a fort during the Assyrian empire, Tikrit became the birthplace of Muslim military leader Saladin. Tikrit wasn't Saddam Hussein's birthplace, as wrongly known. Saddam Hussein's birthplace was in a modest village (13 km) south of Tikrit, which is called "ِAl-Awja", the Myth that Saddam was born in Tikrit may have originated from the fact that Saddam bore the surname al-Tikriti.[3] The inhabitants of this village were farmers. Just a few significant people from Salah ad Din Governerate, of whom some were born in Tikrit, were appointed to government roles during the time of Ba'athist Iraq until the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.[4] After the invasion, the city has been the site of conflict, culminating in the Second Battle of Tikrit from March through April 2015, which resulted in the displacement of 28,000 civilians.[5] The Iraqi government regained control of the city from the Islamic State on March 31, 2015 and has been at peace since then.[6] As a fort along the Tigris (Akkadian: Idiqlat), the city is first mentioned in the Fall of Assyria Chronicle as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BC.[7]