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ISIS sets mine afire to stall assault on Mosul

 
Published Oct. 23, 2016

IRBIL, IRAQ — A fire set by Islamic State militants at a sulfur 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 U.S. troops to wear protective masks, health and military officials said on Saturday.

Firefighters were still struggling on Saturday to put out the blaze at the Mishraq sulfur mine, about 25 miles southeast of Mosul, according to Col. Abdulrahman Al-Khazali, a spokesman for Iraqi Federal Police who visited the mine.

Officials gave no indication that the fumes had interrupted a broader five-day-old offensive to capture Mosul from the militants. But the smoldering sulfur added to the list of unconventional weapons — including oil fires, armor-plated car bombs and exploding drones — the militants have deployed to slow the march of Iraqi forces toward the city.

In another attempt to distract their opponents, dozens of ISIS fighters staged a bold raid on government buildings and police positions in the northern city of Kirkuk, east of Mosul, on Friday. The attack was largely contained by Saturday, but at least 80 people, mainly Kurdish security forces, had been killed during the incursion, a Kirkuk police official told the Associated Press.

Soldiers were seen wearing surgical masks about 15 miles south of the fires on Friday, where a highway and surrounding villages were blanketed in a dull gray 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 U.S. troops stationed at a forward staging base near Mosul, according to American officials.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrived in Iraq on Saturday to assess progress of the operation to retake Mosul.