BAGHDAD: Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s oil ministry said Wednesday it had run into a massive stash of petroleum pipes previously seized by Islamic State militants in Mosul.
In a statement, the ministry said its teams found 500 petroleum pipes, each 12-meters-long in eastern Mosul. It said the find “will save the public treasury huge sums and help implement the ministry’s projects in the province”.
Islamic State took over government facilities at areas they occupied in 2014 to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate”. Occasional reports had also told of the militants setting fire to oil wells or smuggling petroleum to finance their activity.
Iraqi forces took over Mosul from Islamic State early July after more than eight months of battles, with officials decrying a severe damage to the province’s infrastructure.
