Sinjar offensive

The Sinjar offensive was an operation launched by the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq on 17 December 2014, to recapture the regions formerly lost to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in their August offensive. Reportedly, Masoud Barzani, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, personally directed the offensive. The five-day-long offensive began with the aim of breaking the siege of the Sinjar Mountains which had begun in August. Kurdish officials said that the offensive expanded as ISIL militants withdrew to Tell Afar and Mosul.

Background
In August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched an offensive in Northern Iraq and pushed into Kurdish held areas of the Nineveh Province, capturing the city of Sinjar, among others. Some 50,000 Yazidis fled to and remained in the Sinjar Mountains, located to the city's north.

By the end of August, the majority of those 50,000 Yazidis had left the mountains, several thousands stayed there.

In October, ISIL conquered more terrain north of the mountains, where still thousands of Yazidis lived.

Sinjar area offensive
On 17 December 2014, at 7 AM (04.00 GMT), Peshmerga forces launched an offensive on the Sinjar area, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes that had started the night before. About 8,000 Peshmerga forces started advancing westward from Zumar, which had been recaptured by the Peshmerga in October 2014. A total of 45 airstrikes had been conducted by the US-led Coalition by end of the day. The Peshmerga were supported with training and equipment by a British Army training team.

Breaking the Siege of Mount Sinjar
On 18 December, the Peshmerga advanced even farther and managed to recapture a total of 700 square kilometers of territory and open a corridor from Zumar to Mount Sinjar, thus breaking the siege of those mountains. According to a statement from the Kurdish command, large numbers of ISIL militants were fleeing, westward into Syria, and eastward into Mosul. A total of 53 airstrikes had been carried out as of Thursday evening 18 December. According to the U.S. Pentagon, the airstrikes near Sinjar had targeted ISIL storage units, bulldozers, guard towers, vehicles, and three bridges. Kurdish officials said on 19 December that, so far, more than 100 ISIL militants had been killed in this Kurdish Sinjar offensive.

Rabia offensive and closing in on Tal Afar
On 19 December, one day after breaking the Siege of Mount Sinjar, the Peshmerga launched a new offensive from the Rabia border crossing southward to Mount Sinjar. The new offensive was launched at 8 AM (05.00 GMT), with the aim of further clearing the area north of Mount Sinjar. Simultaneously, Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar started pushing northward and captured Snuny, located on the road to Rabia. Also, it was reported that the Peshmerga, on a different front, were approaching Tal Afar and had started firing artillery at ISIL positions nearby. Tal Afar, a Turkmen city, is located on the road that connects Sinjar to Mosul and was captured by ISIL in their June offensive.

Entering Sinjar and ending operations
Kurdish forces entered the city of Sinjar on the night of 20 December.

On 21 December, 1,500 Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, backed by local militia units, reportedly drove ISIL from the center of Sinjar. On 22 December, peshmerga took control of much of the town of Sinjar.

The Kurdish advance was stalled afterward, as Kurdish forces faced fierce resistance from ISIL militants inside the city. By the end of the offensive, Kurdish forces had recaptured more than 500 square miles of mostly desert and highway.

A few days after Kurdish forces entered Sinjar, a high-ranking Peshmerga commander said in an interview that the push into the town was premature, as retaking Sinjar was not planned to be carried out in this offensive. According to him, some of the Peshmerga entered Sinjar without orders to do so, after seeing ISIL militants on the run.

YPG offensive
The Rojava's army, known as People's Protection Units (YPG), announced on 19 December that they were moving south towards the Iraqi border to reopen a corridor connecting Mount Sinjar to the Syrian border. The YPG had first opened that corridor in August 2014 to relieve tens of thousands of Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar. Two days later, the YPG said they had captured three villages on the Syrian side of the border and four villages on the Iraqi side, and that they had successfully reopened the corridor.

Mass graves


On the third day of the offensive, it was reported that a Yazidi mass grave containing 70 bodies had been found. According to Kurdish sources, nine Yazidi mass graves had been found by the end of the offensive. 18 Yazidi shrines have also been destroyed by ISIL militants since June 2014.

ISIL execution of deserters
According to local residents, ISIL executed more than 45 of its own members during this December Kurdish Sinjar offensive, for failing to stand their ground against the Kurdish forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that ISIL in December 2014 had, in total, killed 200 of its own fighters for fleeing the battlefield. In March 2015, ISIL again executed 18 of its own fighters in northern Iraq, now amid accusations that the men texted the Kurdish enemy and planned on surrendering, SOHR reported.