Story

A Defeat for Islamic State in Two Iraqi Towns

September 09, 2014 | The Washington Post
By
Sebastian Meyer

A local man inspects the exhumed bodies of five civilians who were killed by ISIL militants. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A Kurdish peshmerga soldier takes a picture of a colleague holding the Islamic State and Kurdish flags after the town of Amerli and surrounding areas were liberated from Islamist militants. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

Kurdish peshmerga officer inspects a burned-out building that Islamic State fighters had used as a sharia court in Suleiman Beg, near the formerly besieged town of Amerli. Tensions are emerging among the peshmerga, Iraqi army and Shiite militia forces that broke the siege of Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

Pro-Iraqi graffiti covers the Islamic State flag on a building that militants had used as a sharia court in the area of Suleiman Beg and Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A Shiite militiaman stands over the exhumed bodies of five civilians who were killed by Islamic State militants in the town of Suleiman Beg when they overran the area on their way to besieging the nearby town of Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A playground ride is unused in the almost deserted Iraqi town of Suleiman Beg, near the formerly besieged town of Amerli. Militants from the Islamic State had occupied Suleiman Beg while they lay siege to Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

Kurdish pesh merga soldiers in a pickup truck pass Shiite graffiti sprayed on blast walls after the town of Suleiman Beg was taken from Islamic State fighters in the campaign that broke the Islamist siege of the nearby town of Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

Fighters from the Badr Brigade, a Shiite militia, walk through the almost deserted town of Suleiman Beg after it was retaken from Islamist militants. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A Kurdish soldier walks to a peshmerga front-line position in Tuz Khormatu. Peshmerga fighters held the position while Islamist militants besieged the nearby Iraqi town of Amerli. A coalition of forces including peshmerga fighters eventually drove the militants from Amerli. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A Kurdish officer stands near a peshmerga front-line position in Tuz Khormatu, in the vicinity of the Iraqi towns of Amerli and Suleiman Beg. Islamist militants were driven from the two towns. Image by Sebastian Meyer. Iraq, 2014.

A loose coalition of Kurdish peshmerga, Iraqi Army, and Shiite militias retook the town of Amerli from ISIL militants, but soon afterward tensions began to rise among the different groups. Pulitzer Center grantee Sebastian Meyer was in Amerli and filed this photo gallery for the Washington Post.