ISIS jihadis set fire to a sulphur plant and SUFFOCATE hundreds of people as they execute Iraqis before they are caught by Allied-forces surrounding Mosul 

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ISIS have suffocated hundreds of people trying to flee Mosul by setting fire to a sulphur plant sending poisonous gas across the city.

Hospitals in Mosul were overwhelmed with patients including children and pregnant women who had inhaled the gas causing breathing problems and choking.

It came following jihadis setting fire to the Mishraq sulphur plant last week which formed a toxic cloud that can affect those caught up without a mask.

Counter terrorism forces in Iraq lead civilians from the homes in the village of Tob Zawa after rounding up ISIS suspects 

An ISIS suspect is forced on to the ground with his hands tied behind his back as he is arrested 

Another handcuffed ISIS suspect also had a scarf tied around his head outside his home on the outskirts of Mosul  

Iraqi forces are rounding up ISIS fighters as they advance on Mosul in a bid to liberate the city from the terror group

Counter-terrorism forces flash the V for victory sign after arresting ISIS suspects in Tob Zawa 

News of the casualties come after it was revealed ISIS terrorists shot dead a disabled girl who was failing to keep up as she was forcibly marched out of her village as Iraqi forces closed in Mosul.

The jihadis were forcing a group of women out of the village of Rufeila, south of the city when they targeted six women, including the disabled girl.

And according to the UN, the extremists shot dead the group, mostly likely because they were struggling to keep up the pace because of her physical disability.

It comes as Iraqi special forces have rounded up 1,000 suspected ISIS fighters as they advance on Mosul in a bid to liberate the city from the terror group.

An Iraqi soldier puts on a gas mask as smoke billows in the background following ISIS setting fire to the Mishraq sulphur factory

Hospitals in Mosul were overwhelmed with patients including children and pregnant women who had inhaled the gas from the plant causing breathing problems and choking

Smoke rises from the Mishraq sulphur plant following a fire caused by ISIS jihadis at the weekend

Pictures from towns and villages around the city show counter-terrorism troops capturing ISIS suspects, forcing them to the ground and arresting them. 

The troops have also uncovered a network of underground tunnels used by the terror group to move fighters and weapons.  

Special forces Major General Haider Fadhil says the residents of Tob Zawa and other nearby villages have been taken to a camp in the nearby Khazer region for their safety.

While Major Salam al-Obeidi says the special forces were undertaking cleanup operations on Wednesday in areas retaken from the militants to the east of the city. 

He says troops had uncovered a vast tunnel network used by ISIS to shuttle fighters and supplies by motorcycle. 

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said ISIS fighters have reportedly killed scores of people around Mosul in the last week

Iraqi forces in tanks advance towards ISIS positions as the battle for Mosul enters a second week 

A man holds his sheep as he flees his home as counter-terrorism forces battle with ISIS fighters 

A newly displaced woman runs after she jumped over a back wall and rushed to grab humanitarian packages, as smoke rises from a burning oil refinery at a processing centre in Qayyara

Young boys run to get supplies after being forced to live in the Jadah Camp in Qayyarah after fleeing Mosul 

It follows reports that ISIS fighters have been carrying out mass executions of Iraqi civilians and police officers as they are forced to retreat their territory.

According to CNN, the terror group is has been sending so-called 'suicide squads' from Syria to Mosul for the battle of the city.

Witnesses have said many are streaming in daily and they are recognisable by their distinct uniforms and suicide belts.

Civilians flee their houses, as Iraq's elite counter terrorism forces fight against ISIS militants, in the village of Tob Zawa

Women help pull children over a high wall as they flee their village after it was invaded by ISIS 

Women and children were seen leaving their homes along side an elderly man who needed a walking stick 

They have also been seen rigging explosives next to bridges crossing the River Tigris and are said to have prepared car bombs.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said ISIS fighters have reportedly killed scores of people around Mosul in the last week.

Mr Colville said that security forces discovered the bodies of 70 civilians in houses in Tuloul Naser village south of Mosul last Thursday.

A Peshmerga fighter feeds children who are waiting at a checkpoint after fleeing Topzava village

Children pose after playing in the smoke and soot after an oil well was set on fire by ISIS militants near Mosul 

A toddler wearing a Thomas the Tank jacket plays barefoot in the soot close to a burning oil well 

ISIS also reportedly killed 50 former police officers outside Mosul on Sunday, he said.

Elsewhere, a man who recently escaped Hamam Ali, south of Mosul, told the Guardian a relative told him 200 men, mostly former police officers, had been killed by ISIS as the Iraqi army closed in.

It comes as ISIS also executed nine of its own members by throwing them into trenches of hot oil and burning them to death after they tried to flee the battle raging around Mosul.

The city is the terror group's last major stronghold in Iraq and last week government forces backed by the U.S. launched an offensive to liberate the area.

So far around 90 villages and towns under ISIS control have been freed in the past week and in some parts, coalition forces are just three miles from the centre of Mosul. 

Iraqi forces defended their positions after taking control of the town of Bartella from ISIS as they advance on Mosul 

A member of the Iraqi forces holds a position at the al-Shura area, south of Mosul. ISIS has executed nine of its own fighters who tried to flee the battle 

Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government's peshmerga forces attack ISIS targets with artillery to capture Bashiqa district

Iraqi families who have been displaced by the ongoing military operation jump on to the back of a truck to flee the city 

A mother carries her small baby on the outskirts of Mosul as fires rage at the oil trenches nearby 

However, today it was revealed jihadis have now taken control of the Iraqi town of Rutba as it shifts its area of control.

It comes as some ISIS fighters begin to flee other parts of the city and surrounding areas after being defeated by the Iraqi government, leaving commanders of the terror group to turn on their own members.

According to Al Sumaria News, nine ISIS fighters who tried to flee Mosul were captured by their commanders and tied by their hands and legs.

Afterwards, they were thrown into trenches containing burning oil and killed.

Iraqi men fight for food near Qayyarah after flee Mosul as the battle for the city continues 

Fighters who have been displaced by ISIS pile on to pick up trucks before heading to the front line of fighting 

Despite the men heading to the front line, many seemed in good spirits and gave the V for victory sign 

Today the Iraqi army paused its week-long advance on Mosul as it approached the city's eastern edge, while waiting for other U.S.-backed forces to close in

A woman tries to flee Mosul from the south as smoke rises from a burning oil refinery nearby 

Burning the oil trenches around Mosul is one of the tactics adopted by the terror group in a bid to fight off government forces advancing on the city.

They believe the large fires and vasts amounts of smoke impede the vision of Iraqi and U.S. jets who are helping in the battle.

Jihadis have also lined many of the towns and villages on the way to the city with IEDs and booby traps while preparing for the onslaught.

In addition they have also launched surprise attacks elsewhere in Iraq in places such as Kirkuk in a bid to distract the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces from Mosul.

Women and children who have been driven from Mosul gather near the town of Hassan Sham 

Children collect water and other aid supplies after waiting in line at Ibrahim Khalil village 

And security sources now say Rutba is under ISIS control near the borders with Syria and Jordan after they expanded their territory to cover half of the town.

The Iraqi army and Sunni tribal fighters remained in control of the other half, at the town's entrances from the express highway that links Baghdad and the western border, they said.

However, today the Iraqi army paused its week-long advance on Mosul as it approached the city's eastern edge, while waiting for other U.S.-backed forces to close in.

On the ninth day of the offensive on Mosul, government forces and allied Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are still fighting their way towards the city's outer limits, in the early stages of an assault which could become the biggest military operation in Iraq in over a decade.

An aid worker in a remote village on the outskirts of Mosul administers the oral polo vaccine to children 

A young boy holds out his arm and is held by an older relative as an aid worker gives him a measles vaccine 

U.N. aid agencies said the fighting has so far forced about 9,000 to flee their homes including many children 

The first to get near to Mosul, advancing to within just over a mile of Iraq's second largest city, was the elite U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service (CTS).

CTS troops have moved in from the east, dislodging Islamic State from a Christian region that has been empty of residents since the ultra-hardline Sunni militants took it over in 2014.

The combat ahead is likely to be more difficult and deadly because of the presence of civilians. Some 1.5 million residents remain in the city and worst-case forecasts see up to a million being uprooted, according to the United Nations. 

The Mosul campaign, which aims to crush the Iraqi half of the ISIS self declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, may become the biggest battle yet in the 13 years of turmoil unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A CTS commander said the advance will pause to allow the other military units to make a similar progress and consolidate the front before pushing further into the city.

The Iraqi force attacking Mosul is 30,000-strong, joined by U.S. special forces and under American, French and British air cover. The number of insurgents dug in the city is estimated at 5,000 to 6,000 by the Iraqi military.

Islamic State fighters have reportedly killed scores of people around Mosul in the last week