A coalition airstrike on a Islamic State (ISIS) position near the town of Makhmur (‏مەخموور)

Kurdish tank commander between Erbil and Mosul.

A peshmerga General in a fortified trench position.

Two soviet made T-54 tanks on the Mosul frontline.

A highway bridge between Mosul and Erbil destroyed by the fighters of the Islamic State on their retreat. In the background the explosion   and smoke form a coalition airstrike is visible.

Desert frontline

Summer 2015 // While the Iraqi army in 2014 crumbled under the rapid advance of the Islamic State group (ISIS), Kurdish forces moved in preventing northern Iraq to be overrun completely. The experienced Kurdish «Peshmerga» fighters stopped the ISIS offensive in the desert before reaching their capital Erbil. Holding down the frontline, the Peshmerga put up guard posts and trenches along a 1500-kilometer stretch. ISIS tested those defenses daily with rockets and gunfire until the subsequent counter offensive backed by an international coalition and the reinforced Iraqi Army in 2016.