As Iraqi forces battle to re-take Mosul from ISIL, almost a thousand people are being treated for breathing problems after a sulphur plant was set ablaze near the city. <br /><br /> The so-called Islamic State set it ablaze on Thursday during fighting around al-Mishraq, according to US officials.<br /><br /> No deaths have been reported. <br /><br /> The fire was out on Saturday, Iraqi state TV has reported. <br /><br /> “The cases presented were suffocation, caused by the large fire in the sulphur factory near Qayyara,” said Saddam Jumaa, a medical worker.<br /><br /> “Elderly men and women were affected, as well as children, especially those with asthma and bronchitis, and other cases.”<br /><br /> A cloud of white smoke filled the sky where the factory is located, mingling with black fumes from burning oil wells – also said to have been torched by ISIL.<br /><br /> Elsewhere, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been clashing with ISIL in the village of Batnaya, near Mosul. <br /><br /> The battle came as Iraqi army vehicles moved closer to the militants’ stronghold. <br /><br /> Meanwhile, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was spotted in Mosul a few days ago – a Kurdish minister revealed on Saturday. <br /><br /> He is the man who declared a caliphate and himself the leader of the world’s Muslims in 2014.<br />
