Al-Awja

Al-Awja (Arabic: العوجا‎; also known as Owja, Al-Auja or Al-Ouja) is a village 8 miles (13 km) south of Tikrit, in Iraq on the western bank of the Tigris.

It was the birthplace of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1937 and home of many of the leaders of Iraqi provinces during his Presidency over Iraq.

When Saddam was found by the 4th Infantry Division, he was hiding only a few miles from his hometown in the town of ad-Dawr. Saddam Hussein was buried in this village before dawn on December 31, 2006, less than 24 hours after his execution took place for his major responsibility in crimes against humanity in Iraq.

During the fighting in the Second Battle of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's tomb was levelled by ISIL. After Iraqi forces took the control of the village, Shia militiamen of the Popular Mobilization Committee put Shia militia's insignia around the village, including that of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Coordinates: 34°31′59″N 43°43′59″E / 34.53306°N 43.73306°E / 34.53306; 43.73306

Yarkon River

The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River (Hebrew: נחל הירקון‎, Nahal HaYarkon; Arabic: نهر العوجا‎, Nahr al-Auja), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west through Gush Dan and Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park into the Mediterranean Sea. Its Arabic name, al-Auja, means "the meandering". The Yarkon is the largest coastal river in Israel, at 27.5 km in length.

History

The Yarkon formed the southern border of the vilayet of Beirut during the late Ottoman period.

The Arabic name of the river, al-Auja ("the meandering one"), is shared with another small stream that flows into the Jordan Valley north of Jericho. During World War I this coincidence led to the term of "the line of the two Aujas" referring to a strategic line connecting the two river valleys and taken by the expeditionary forces of General Allenby during his early 1918 advance against the Ottoman army.

In the Mandatory period, the British government granted the Jaffa Electric Company exclusive rights to generate, distribute, and sell electricity in the District of Jaffa. These rights were delivered through the “Auja Concession”, which was formally signed on September 12, 1921. The Concession had authorized the company to generate electricity by means of hydroelectric turbines that would exploit the water power of the Yarkon River to supply electricity to Jaffa, the smaller neighboring town of Tel Aviv, and other locations within the bounds of the administrative District of Jaffa. Yet the plan to generate electricity by hydroelectric means never materialized, and instead the company designed and built a powerhouse that produced electricity by means of diesel-fueled engines.