Kurdish Forces in Iraq Advance on Islamic State

Kurdish peshmerga forces clash with Islamic State militants in the town of Daquq, south of Kirkuk, Sept. 30, 2014.

Volunteers with Kurdish peshmerga forces clash with Islamic State militants in the town of Daquq, south of Kirkuk, Sept. 30, 2014.

Islamic State flags flutter on the Mullah Abdullah bridge where members of the Kurdish security forces and the Islamic State are holding fort behind sandbags on different ends of the bridge, in southern Kirkuk, Sept. 29, 2014.

Abu Ismail, the owner of a plastics factory that was targeted on Sunday by what activists said were U.S.-led air strikes, examines the damage at his destroyed factory in the Islamic State's stronghold of Raqqa, Sept. 29, 2014.

Sheikh Abdulrahman Menshed al-Assisi says life has been filled with hardship for tens of thousands of Iraqi Arabs who escaped villages under assault by Sunni extremists to seek refuge in Kurdish enclaves, northern Iraq, Sept. 29, 2014.

In this June 9, 2014 photo, Turkish truck drivers Ceyhun Ismaloglu (left) and Servet Karakan relax on the grounds of the Qayara Power Station in Iraq. The drivers were kidnapped by the Islamic State the following morning. The episode paints a picture of a militant group (IS) unusually careful not to anger Turkey’s government - and offers insight into the mysterious release of 49 Turkish hostages in late September, 2014.