(reuters) -- Iraqi forces began moving on Hawija two days after capturing the Rashad air base, located 30 km (20 miles) to the south and used by the militants as a training camp and logistics site.

Iraq launched an offensive on September 21 to dislodge Isis from Hawija, which lies west of the oil city of Kirkuk and north of Baghdad.

The other area of the country still under the control of the militant group is a stretch of land along the Syrian border, in western Iraq.

Isis self-declared "caliphate" effectively collapsed in July, when Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, after a gruelling nine-month battle.