A mother has described the heartbreak of watching her two starving sons who are 'dead already' after days without food in the ISIS-held city of Mosul in Iraq.

The boys were already emaciated when they arrived at the Hasansham refugee camp near Mosul this week and they do not seem to be responding to treatment by UNICEF, who run the camp.

Their mother told BBC Radio 5 live reporter Anna Foster: 'It's so difficult for me, for my husband, for them. I can see that they are dead already. I cannot believe that they are alive.'

One of the children is aged two and his brother is nine, although he is so thin that he looks half that age.

The boys - who have not been identified - are described as their mother as 'dead already'

The boys' thin bodies can be seen lying on a mattress, their ribs and knee joints protruding.

The mother, who is not identified for her own safety, said she pleaded with ISIS leaders in the besieged city to let her take the children out of the city earlier.

She is thought to have eventually escaped the city with her husband and the boys after ISIS lost control of the district where they lived.

The two little boys lie on a thin mattress in the refugee camp. Their limbs are as thin as twigs

But she has complained of shortages in the camp and said: 'I've been here for four days and we have no food, we have not received clothes, as you can see they're wearing girl's dresses.'

Around 47,000 people have arrived at the camp, pushed out of their homes in and around Mosul by heavy fighting between Iraqi special forces and ISIS.

The number rises by 3,000 every day and the new arrivals queue to collect food, soap and toothpaste.

The mother of the boys said she was amazed they were still alive. They are being cared for by UNICEF at their camp in Hasansham, along with dozens of other children (pictured)