JANE ARRAF:

The family is Muslim Kurdish in a city of Yazidis and Kurds. In one room, they find the dust-covered Koran. It`s one of the few things ISIS didn`t steal.

Rayan rescues photographs. With the takeover of Sinjar, that part of his life is now over. Basima retrieves some pots and pans, some blankets, a favorite tea-set, as they put what they can salvage in the taxi.

A roadside bomb explodes on a nearby street. They get back in the taxi to head for the safer Kurdish region.

Kurdish forces are busy still fighting ISIS on the other side of the mountain and the city seems lawless. Civilians wander around with guns. Politicians and union leaders drive around posing for photos.

Apart from fighters, the city is almost deserted. "We`re all going to America," this resident jokes.

Security forces have placed red flags near some of the roadside bombs left by ISIS but there are a lot more remaining. Along with Kurdish government Peshmerga, there are competing Kurdish forces and Yazidi fighters staking their claim. The city feels as if it`s just waiting for a spark to re-ignite.

Sinjar has been re-captured, but the challenge now for Kurdish forces is to maintain control. ISIS controls villages to the south of here and there's already looting in the city. So this guard unit has been brought in to maintain security.

Along these streets, ISIS has marked the homes with graffiti identifying the owners' religion. Some of those marked "Shia" were almost completely destroyed, looted and then set on fire.

In another area, a misspelled "the Islamic State" remains. This one vowed death to the Kurdish Peshmerga.

While ISIS was driven out of Sinjar, they are still a threat just a few miles from here.

Ahmed Ghaib Hussein, the head of a mostly Shia Kurdish neighborhood here, says people won`t come back to the city until some of the surrounding villages are retaken.

AHMED GHAIB HUSSEIN, Sinjar neighborhood leader (through interpreter): Whether it`s America, Iraq, or Kurdistan, we want them to liberate those areas so people can return to their homes. If these areas are liberated, families will return.