The Kurdish army, on Friday, stormed and captured the strategic Syrian city of Sinjar from the Islamic State. The Islamic State has used the city as a stronghold for the past two years. This is considered huge and major victory for the coalition that has been trying to oust the Islamic State from Syria.

The city had been under the vicious and murderous rule of the Islamic State for nearly two years. The offensive capped a two day assault that ended in the liberating of the city, reports The New York Times. The Kurds were joined in the battle by the Muslim minority Yazidi’s. As the troops entered the city, they were met with the destruction of homes and businesses as everywhere they looked there was rubble. The Yazidi forces joined with the Kurds because the minority faction was threatened with murder, rape, torture, and slavery after the Islamic State originally took the city.

There was still a small band of Islamic State soldiers holed up in the northern end of the city but the Kurds expected to clear them out with little problem. Kurdish engineers began clearing the surrounding roadways of improvised roadside bombs soon after the taking of the city. It was quite the alliance as some smaller factions joined the Kurds and the Yazidi’s as evidenced by the many flags that were seen as they all rode into battle.

The battle began from the east on Friday morning with the destruction of a huge dirt wall that the Kurds had built on Thursday to try and prevent any vehicle bomb attacks by the Islamic State. A huge bulldozer plowed through the wall and the Kurdish army followed through to attack the city. Most of the Kurdish vehicles were distinctly marked with orange paint so they wouldn’t be hit by American airstrikes.

As the Kurds and their allies were poised to attack the city, American warplanes thundered overhead to clear the way into the city.