Region in focus - The recapture of Sinjar

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  A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier passes through the rubble of a neighborhood in Sinjar.

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  Kurdish Peshmerga show what they say is a mass grave of more than fifty Yazidis killed by ISIL.

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  A Peshmerga soldier walks past the rubble of a neighborhood in Sinjar days after recapturing the town from the Islamic State.

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  Former Yazidi resident Khalaf Halti, 62, walks through the rubble of his neighborhood after the town was recaptured from ISIL.

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  People remove household goods from the rubble of their town as a house burns in Sinjar, Iraq.

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  Family members pay their respects in a martyrs' cemetery for soldiers from the People's Protection Units (YPG), killed fighting ISIL in Qamishli, Rojava, Syria. The predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria and Iraq have become bastions against the Islamic State, with the help of US airstrikes.

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  A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier passes by tires set ablaze days before by ISIL extremists to hinder airstrikes in Sinjar, Iraq.

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  Yazidi refugees celebrate news of the liberation of their home town of Sinjar from ISIL extremists in Derek, Rojava, Syria. Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq have retaken Sinjar, with the help of airstrikes from US led coalition warplanes. The Islamic State captured Sinjar in August 2014, killing many and sexually enslaving thousands of Yazidi women.

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  A boy kisses a photo of his father at a martyrs' cemetery for soldiers from the People's Protection Units (YPG), killed fighting ISIL.

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  Family members pay their respects in a martyrs' cemetery for soldiers from the People's Protection Units (YPG).

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  A Peshmerga soldier aims a Milan anti-tank missile towards an ISIL position as a bulldozer builds berms and trenches on the new frontline near Sinjar, Iraq.

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Aided by US air strikes, the predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria and Iraq have become bastions in the fight against the Islamic State.

On November 13, Kurdish forces, backed by the Yazidi Sinjar Alliance, PKK and YPG fighters, launched an offensive to drive the extremists from Sinjar. ISIL had captured the city in August 2014 and subsequently carried out the Sinjar massacre, killing hundreds of Yazidi civilians. This led to the mass exodus of residents, who were branded by the ISIL as “devil worshippers”.

The first offensive to retake the city from ISIL militants took place on the night of December 20 2014, but on that occasion, the Kurdish advance was stalled as it faced fierce resistance from ISIL militants inside the southern half of the city. On November 13, a day after launching a major second offensive, Kurdish forces, backed by their allies and US airstrikes, entered the city and fully regained control from ISIL. Following the recapture, in the nearby hamlet of Solagh, east of Sinjar city, Kurdish forces found a mass grave with the remains of at least 78 Yazidi women believed to be executed by ISIL militants.

In recent days, local Yazidi fighters who fought alongside Kurdish forces have been searching for any salvageable items in amongst the rubble, as the city, being perilously close to the front line and in such a state of ruin, has been rendered uninhabitable.

Photography by John Moore for Getty Images