Islamic State deploys unconventional weapon, sickens hundreds with toxic sulphur mine fire near Mosul

A fire set by Islamic State militants at a sulphur mine near the city of Mosul in recent days sent plumes of noxious gases over the battlefield, sickening hundreds of civilians and forcing Iraqi and US troops to wear protective masks.

Firefighters were still struggling on this weekend to put out the blaze at the Mishraq sulfur mine, about 40 km southeast of Mosul, according to Colonel Abdulrahman Al-Khazali, a spokesman for Iraqi Federal Police who visited the mine.

Officials gave no indication that the fumes had interrupted an almost week old offensive to capture Mosul from the militants. But the smouldering sulphur added to the list of unconventional weapons - including oil fires, armour-plated car bombs and exploding drones - the militants have deployed in an effort to slow the march of Iraqi forces toward the city.

Soldiers were seen wearing surgical masks about 25 km south of the fires on Friday, where a highway and surrounding villages were blanketed in a dull grey haze. Several oil fires burned nearby, obscuring the view of the horizon with a curtain of black smoke.

In recent days, shifting winds began blowing the noxious fumes over US troops stationed at a forward staging base near Mosul, according to American officials.

Although much of the mine was burned during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, about 10 per cent of the sulphur still remains.