Iraqi forces have announced today they they captured an airbase outside of the city of Tel Afar, just west of the city of Mosul. The base is reported to still have pockets of ISIS resistance, but officials say they expect to have it wrapped up soon.
Tel Afar is being targeted by Iraqi Shi’ite militias, who intend to cut off any ISIS escape into neighboring Syria, ensuring the Mosul battle will be a fight to the death for all ISIS fighters involved. The airbase is to be used as a “staging area” for Iraqi troops west of Mosul.
The condition of the airbase is as yet uncertain, though if the Qayara Airbase is anything to go by, there’s a good chance it has been targeted by US airstrikes for a couple of years and is just a bombed out husk of what it initially was.
In the meantime, the fighting inside Mosul again saw ISIS on the offensive, with ISIS forces attacking the limited number of Iraqi troops who managed to enter the city, firing mortars at the military positions and trying to advance again into those same places.