Iraqi Kurdish officials have reported that the Peshmerga, backed by US warplanes, have seized control over Mount Sinjar again, opening a corridor between the Yazidi territory and Kurdistan.
Kurdish officials presented the Yazidis who live on the mountain as being “trapped,” and having “liberated” them with the military operation, though it’s not clear anyone intended to leave at any rate.
Mount Sinjar was the excuse for the initial US military intervention against ISIS, with claims of massive numbers of Yazidis trapped there. They never were, of course, as those on top of the mountain were almost entirely the ones who lived there in the first place.
ISIS has been keen to keep the Sinjar district because of its proximity to Mosul, and even though the Peshmerga reached the mountain itself, most of the district remains contested.