GOGJALI, Mosul — ISIL has launched an “unprecedented” wave of suicide bombers, some of whom are children, against advancing Iraqi forces as the jihadist group clings to its city stronghold of Mosul.

More than 100 suicide bombers have hurled themselves at Iraqi troops since the Mosul offensive began on Oct. 17, a rate of self-annihilation extreme even by the standards of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“The amount of people killing themselves is unprecedented. It’s different from anything we’ve seen before,” said Charlie Winter, a senior fellow at the ICSR think-tank who tracks the use of suicide bombers.

Among those who have killed themselves is an Irish jihadist named Terence Kelly, who styled himself as Abu Osama Irelandi after joining ISIL. The Dubliner blew himself up on Friday after driving a vehicle at a Shia militia group as it advanced into a village outside the city.

On one day on the battlefield there were 18 suicide attacks within 24 hours, more attacks than the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, had carried out in 100 days, Winter said.

Many of the 102 suicide attacks have been carried out using improvised armoured vehicles that are packed to the brim with explosives and then driven at high speed at oncoming enemies.