Yazidi town of Sinjar liberated by Peshmerga fighters. ISIS is in retreat. CNN

Peshmerga fighters on Sinjar Mountain. CNN/Getty.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have taken the Yazidi town of Sinjar from ISIS. CNN. The town had been a stronghold for the Yazidi people before it fell to ISIS last summer. The religious minority faced extreme persecution from ISIS and were forced to flee to nearby Mt. Sinjar. Hundreds of Yazidi were killed or enslaved. The latest offensive to oust ISIS from the area involved attacks from Peshmerga fighters and heavy airstrikes from the United States and other coalition partners. With a corridor opened to supply and help the remaining Yazidi, ISIS has retreated to Mosul and the Syrian border. The Peshmerga fighters vow to continue the offensive. 

My Comment:

Finally some good news out of Iraq. The plight of the Yazidi was one of the most tragic and horrific stories to come out the third Iraq War. And though I don't think this is the end of their troubles, at the very least their homes are controlled by people that are friendly and tolerant to them. They are still under threat, after all ISIS is still around and hundreds of people are still enslaved by them, but for awhile it looked like the Yazidi would go extinct. With any luck, that shouldn't happen now. 

It finally looks like we are seeing some success in the war against ISIS. For a long time ISIS was unstoppable. They took over half of Iraq with little effort, pushed the Kurds around in both Iraq and Syria and made a huge name for themselves with their savvy and professional propaganda. Now they are fleeing from the battle in Northern Iraq, having their leaders bombed by the United States and are being fought to a standstill in Kobani. 

It is way to early to say that the war will be won soon though. The tide has turned, but ISIS is still getting foreign recruits, the Iraqi army is still very weak and Syria is a madhouse. The bombing campaign will help but it can not destroy ISIS alone. We are past the phase of the war where ISIS is making huge advances, in Iraq and Syria at least. But we aren't at the point where they are defeated. If anything, I am predicting a stalemate. And remember, this is a global war. ISIS is just a part of a larger war against radical Islam that has lasted more then a decade. But, at the very least, we can now claim some victories against them.