Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi army troops arrested four people early on Monday after the soldiers seized explosives planted under an oil pipeline in northern Iraq that carries crude oil to Turkey, an army spokesman said.

    Based on intelligence, the Iraqi soldiers found about 150 kg of TNT planted under the oil pipeline that stretches in the al-Kiskarea, about 80 km west of Mosul, Captain Muhammad Chiad, spokesman of the 3rd Iraqi Army Division, told Xinhua.

    The explosives were removed to another area and safely destroyed, Chiad added.

    The soldiers arrested four suspects in the nearby area, he said. Mosul, the capital city of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is some 400 km north of Baghdad.