The Battles After ISIS

Reports emerged Monday that ISIS had been defeated in Raqqa, the Syrian city it claims as its capital, signaling a major victory in the years-long battle against the militant group and the near end to its self-declared caliphate. But already there are signs the post-ISIS battles are only beginning: In neighboring Iraq, government forces have recaptured Kirkuk, an oil province that has been under Kurdish control since 2014, after beginning to move on the disputed region over the weekend.

Iraqi government forces had from Kirkuk in 2014 amid what seemed at the time to be ISIS’s unstoppable advance in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces known as peshmerga quickly filled the void, taking control of the region thatfeared the Iraqi Kurds were setting the conditions to create a Kurdish state that would embolden Kurdish separatist forces in their own countries. But while the U.S.-led military effort in the region focused on rooting ISIS out of Iraq and Syria, longstanding regional rivals found ways to cooperate against their common enemy, setting aside major differences—until last month.