Men wearing traditional Kurdish clothes buy and sell prayer beads in a square in front of the Erbil’s citadel, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Iraqi Kurdish families cool off in the Big Zab river near the town of Barzan in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq.
Visitors explore the Amna Suraka torture museum in Sulaimaniya. A former security HQ and prison under Saddam Hussein.
Peshmerga soldiers, Iraqi Kurdistan’s armed forces, drink tea at a frontline position along the eastern edge of territory still held by ISIS near the city of Hawija.
A group of mainly Arab Iraqi tourists from southern Iraq cool off at Gali Bele waterfall in Kurdish controlled northern Iraq. Every day during the hottest months of summer thousands of Arab Iraqis’ visit the cooler mountain regions of the Kurdish area.
An Iranian Kurdish tourist answers the evening call to prayer at Chavy land theme park in Sulaimaniya in Northern Iraq.
Workers at the Kar group oil refinery near Erbil in Northern Iraq work to wash away spilled fuel around a tanker loading depot.
Peshmerga soldiers, Iraqi Kurdistan’s armed forces, patrol their frontline positions along the eastern edge of territory still held by ISIS near the city of Hawija.
A young boy dives into Dukan lake near the city of Ranya in Northern Iraq. It is the largest lake in Iraqi Kurdistan and attracts tourists from all over the country.
Young Kurdish recruits were put through their paces at a training camp near the city of Derik in Syria.
Peshmerga soldiers trained by coalition forces attend a graduation ceremony on the outskirts of Erbil.
A young man stands guard at a night-time checkpoint operated by local volunteers in the Syrian, Kurdish controlled city of Qamishli.
Iraqi Kurds celebrate at a pro referendum rally in Erbil days before the vote on independence.
Photographs of members of the Barzani clan killed during the Anfal campaign under Saddam Hussein in the 1980’s are seen at a commemorative museum near the town of Barzan.
Displaced people, mainly from Mosul and its surrounding area, remained at Khazir camp in Kurdish controlled Iraq.
A Kurdish pesh merga soldier hands over a young man suspected of being an ISIS member to security officials at a screening centre for displaced people near Kirkuk.
Wounded pesh merga soldier Dana Salah Hama, 35, photographed in the garden of his family home with his one and half year old son. Mala Omer, Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi Kurds push to get onto the pitch of a football stadium for a pro referendum rally in Erbil.
Floria City in Erbil, a massive housing project that was started during the boom years in Erbil prior to the rise of ISIS, sits largely unfinished on the outskirts of the city. Although some building has restarted many of the 10,000 or so villas and apartments remain half finished with little hope of buyers on the horizon.
Displaced men suspected of being ISIS members were questioned at a security screening centre near Kirkuk in Kurdish controlled Iraq after fleeing then last remaining ISIS held areas in the province of Hawija.
Gas flares burned at the Bai Hasan oil field in Kurdish controlled disputed territory near the city of Kirkuk.
People celebrated on the streets of Erbil after voting ended in the referendum on Kurdish independence.
Residents shop for sweets, food and clothing at the Qaysareyah market in Kirkuk a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
A Kurdish man answered the evening call to prayer in front of Family mall in Erbil, a Turkish built and owned super mall.
People registered to vote in the referendum on Kurdish independence at a sports hall being used as a voting centre in Erbil.
People celebrated on the streets of Erbil after the referendum results were announced.
A rocket launcher belonging to Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers rested on sandbags at the frontline of a standoff near Kirkuk with Iraqi army forces.