Photos show what's left of Sinjar after airstrikes drive out ISIS

Kurdish forces recaptured Sinjar town from ISIS militants after two days of heavy, U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. With the dust still settling, journalists and former residents pick through the devastation after ISIS was driven from the town.

With dust settling, Yazidi residents of the town cautiously return to pick up the pieces

The Associated Press Posted: Nov 20, 2015 7:00 PM EST | Last Updated: November 21, 2015

Kurdish peshmerga forces stand in the street in the town of Sinjar on Nov. 16. Once home to about 200,000 people, the town is largely deserted. (Azad Lashkari/Reuters)

Operation Free Sinjar

Kurdish forces, with the aid of massiveU.S.-led coalition airstrikes, liberated the town ofSinjar from the grips of ISIS last week, giving journalistsand former residentsa rare chance to pick through the pieces of the once ethnicallydiverse town.

After the air assault, peshmergafighters launched a major ground offensive dubbed Operation FreeSinjar, raising the Kurdish flag near the centre of town on Nov.13.

Peshmerga soldiers entering Sinjar were met with burning tires set ablaze days earlier by ISIS fighters. The acrid, black smoke was meant to hinder coalition jets from picking off targets on the ground. (John Moore/Getty) (John Moore/Getty)

Burning and looting

Before it was overrun by ISIS, Sinjar(about 50 kilometres from the Syrian border)and its surrounding villageswashome to about 200,000 mainly Kurdish and Arab Muslims a rare mix of Sunni and Shia as well as Christians and Yazidis.

Families from the nearby ISIS-controlled village of Ghabosyeh rest while fleeing their homes on Nov. 16. About 1,000 villagers fled north to Kurdish-held territory near Sinjar to take refuge in camps or follow other refugees to Turkey or Europe. (John Moore/Getty)

Yazidis who returned to Sinjar after the town's ISIS occupiers were driven out left the devastated city with carloads of looted belongings. (Azad Lashkari/Reuters)

Now the town is largely deserted

Although many former localscelebrated the victory, Sinjarlay in complete ruins. Local Yazidis, some ofwhomfought with Kurdish forcesfor the town, picked any salvageable items out of the rubble and left because the front line isstill too close to make the townlivable.

A volunteer Yazidi fighter who joined the Kurdish peshmerga forces poses for a photograph in the bombed-out remains of Sinjar on Nov. 16. (Azad Lashkari/Reuters) (Azad Lashkari/Reuters)

After the battle for Sinjar, Kurdish peshmerga forces carefully screened returning Iraqis fearing enemy infiltrators and suicide bombers. (John Moore/Getty)

Yazidisstrike back

ISIS extremists overranSinjaras they rampaged across Iraq in August 2014, leading to the killing, enslavement and flight of thousands of people from the minorityYazidicommunity, whose members follow an ancient faith thatISIS considers heretical.

Thousands of Yazidi Kurdish women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery and forced to marry ISIS militants, according to Human Rights organizations, Yazidi activists and observers. (John Moore/Getty)

Sinjarasignificantbuttenuous victory

The Kurdish forces encountered little resistance, at least initially, suggesting that many of the ISIS fighters may have pulled back in anticipation of last week'sadvance. It was also possible that they could be biding their time beforemaking a counterattack.

Smoke from an airstrike billows over Sinjar on Nov. 12. Commanders on the ground say ISIS forces largely withdrew during a pause in the air campaign. (Bram Janssen/AP)

ISIS occupiersfled between airstrikes

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, U.S. President Barack Obama pointed to the liberation of Sinjar as evidence the air campaign is makingprogress.Chipping away at ISIS from the air, astrategyendorsed by the president's top security advisers but doubted by many in Congress, isbased on the belief that a heavier, boots-on-the-ground approachwould yield only ashort-lived victory without stronger local armies maintaining stability.

A journalist observes as smoke rises over Sinjar from oil fires set by ISIS militants as Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, launch a major assault on Nov. 12. The strategic town was overrun last year by ISIS, forcing of tens of thousands of Yazidis to flee and prompting the United States to launch the air campaign against the militants. (Bram Janssen/Associated Press)

Equal partners, for now

U.S. Air ForceF-15EStrike Eagles taxi at an airbase inTurkey onNov.12 following a bombing run. The United Stateshas six of the fighter jetsdeployed in support of counter-ISISmissions in Iraq and Syria.

Canada also has six CF-18 fighters taking part, but not for long, according to an announcement byPrime Minister Justin Trudeau during the recent G20 summit. Trudeau remains committed to a campaign promise to withdraw our warplanes from the mission.

U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles taxi on a runway after landing at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, on Nov. 12. Six F-15Es are deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and counter-ISIS missions in Iraq and Syria. (Tech. Sgt. Taylor Worley/USAF/Reuters)

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