Kurdistan and The Invaison of Iraq - JUAN CARLOS photographer fotografo, documentary, reportage, editorial, conflict, El Salvador, USA, Worldwide

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Detail of a Peshmerga (which means “those who face death” or freedom fighter) inside a trench at the Kalakh frontline on the fight for Mosul

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Peshmergas destroying one of Saddam’s pictures. Saddam’s images were everywhere in the country.

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A pick up truck with passenger was hit by a bomb during a U.S. airstrike at the Kalak Frontline

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Peshmerga refreshes himself as they have pushed back the Iraqi army. Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Iraq and since Saddam rose to power, they continuously were oppressed during his regime. on the fight for Mosul)

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A Peshmerga (which means "those who face death" in Kurdish) poses for a picture during the fall of Kirkuk.

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An Iraqi woman weeps next to the body of her family member who died during the chaotic fall Mousul.

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Peshmerga perfoming his afternoon prayer at the Kalak Frontline

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A kid playing inside an abandoned tank.

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Mosul in the days that followed, was hit by a wave of violence and social instability.

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Peshmerga (which means “those who face death” or freedom fighter). Kurds were the only Iraqi ethnic group who allied with the Coalition Forces.

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Women stand on the side of the road in the outskirts of the city of Kirkuk

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The bodies of a couple of Iraqi loyalist soldiers on the streets of Kirkuk, while many looted across the city.

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A grave covered with the Iraq flag at the cemetery of Mosul, few of the fresh graves bared the Iraqi flag.

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U.S. soldiers take in custody a man accused of being a Saddam loyalist

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Captured Iraqi soldiers outside of the city of Kirkuk.

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Iraqi Kurds celebrate the fall of Saddam Hussein in the city of Erbil, chanting pro USA slogans. One holds a picture with the United States President George W. Bush shaking hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair

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A woman wearing a chador walks across a shopping center in the city of Erbil. the Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Iraq and since Saddam rose to power, they continuously were oppressed during his regime.

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View of Baghdad from the roof top of the Palestine Hotel, weeks after the Coalition Forces took over the capital city.

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Iraqis protest for the hiring of former member of Saddam's army and Ba'ath Party members.

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A picture of Saddam ripped in half is left on the floor of a government building in the city of Kirkuk

The Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Iraq and since Saddam rose to power, they continuously were oppressed during his regime. Kurds were the only Iraqi ethnic group to allied with the Coalition Forces.The Peshmergas (Kurd soldier or fighter, which means“those who facedeath”) played a major role in ground fighting in the northernfront. Many Kurds from all over the Kurdistan arrived to the northern frontlines to join forces with the Coalition and help defeat Saddam's army.The cities of Mosul, which is the third largest (in population) and Kirkuk, important for its oil rich soil, were key during the invasion.Mosul and Kirkuk are cites composed of mostly Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds(and a small percentage of Turkmen as well as some Iraqi Christians.These two cities were taken without any resistance because the Iraqi army surrendered. In the days that followed, they were hit by a wave of violence and social instability.