--STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES --<br/> <br />Kurdish peshmerga fighters on the road to Iraq's Sinjar mountain as they head into battle with Islamic State.<br/> <br />Fierce fighting on the way, in the effort to free hundreds trapped by IS.<br/> <br />The assault, backed by U.S. air strikes, ends the months-long ordeal of hundreds from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority, who have been under IS control since August.<br/> <br />Peshmerga soldiers enter bullet ridden homes<br/> <br />Graffiti covered walls declare "Islamic State will stay, God willing."<br/> <br />A kurdish fighter takes of picture of himself with an Islamic State fighter's corpse.<br/> <br />While the Kurds have yet to take back the actual town of Sinjar, the liberation of the Yazidis is a victory for the Kurds after Islamic State's routing of peshmerga fighters this summer.
