2 years of anti-IS airstrikes have redrawn the Iraqi map

MAKHMOUR, Iraq (AP) — Two years ago, the U.S.-led coalition dropped the first airstrikes on the Islamic State group, ushering in a deeper phase of intervention that dramatically changed the fight against the militant group in Iraq.

[...] more than 9,400 coalition airstrikes have allowed Iraqi forces to slowly claw back cities, towns, supply lines and infrastructure.

"If it weren't for the strikes and the heavy artillery (given to the Iraqi army by the coalition), we would still be up in the mountains," Khaylani said, sitting in a small air conditioned room hunched over his mobile phone on an overstuffed sofa.

Closely supported with coalition training, intelligence sharing and airstrikes, Kurdish forces have taken hundreds of towns and villages from IS that were previously claimed by both the Kurdish regional government and Iraq's central government in Baghdad.

Mosul residents who fled to Irbil in the summer of 2014 celebrated the first coalition airstrikes on extremist militants, hoping the stepped-up intervention would quickly repel the militants and allow civilians to return home.

[...] makeshift tents in church gardens and half-finished buildings have been replaced with neat rows of caravans on the outskirts of town that resemble fledgling neighborhoods more than temporary shelters.