IS in disarray in Qayarah after Iraqis push north of key air base

QAYARAH - Iraqi forces have tightened their hold on Qayarah district, 65 kilometers south of Mosul, securing a perimeter around the airbase they captured Saturday, where the Pentagon said at least some of the newly authorized deployment of an additional 560 troops would be located ahead of an assault on the so-called Islamic State (IS) group's de facto capital in Iraq.

On Sunday night and Monday morning, units from the Iraqi army and Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) took a chain of five villages from IS that arc around the north perimeter of the Q-West air base, 9 kilometers southwest of Qayarah town according to an Iraqi officer who declined to be identified and a civilian eyewitness to the fighting.