Mosul (Iraq), April 20 (Xinhua) Up to 130 Iraqi soldiers were taken ill after they ate poisoned food at a military base in northern Iraq Friday, provincial police said.

The soldiers were poisoned in the morning after they took their meal in Hamam al-Alil training centre, some 30 km south of Mosul, said a police officer on condition of anonymity.

The officer said that hospitals in Mosul City received more than 70 soldiers for treatment and that ambulances were bringing more soldiers who were taken ill after eating the poisoned food.

Investigations into the incident were under way, he added.

Mosul, the capital city of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital