Iraqi forces, backed by coalition air strikes and tribal fighters, have pushed the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant from Qayyarah, a northern town considered strategic for any future offensive against the group's last stronghold of Mosul. "We control all parts of the town and managed, in very limited time, to root out Daesh [ISIL]," Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfik, who commands Iraq's ground forces, told reporters in Qayyarah on Thursday.