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FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014 file photo, Yazidi fighters gather on the summit of Mount Sinjar as they head to battle Islamic State militants, in Iraq. The Islamic State group swept into Sinjar town and surrounding villages in early August, part of their blitzkrieg across northern Iraq. The advance of the extremists struck particular fear here. Much of the population come from the minority Yazidi religious community, a tiny sect that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretics. Hundreds were killed. Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls were taken captive by the militants, turned into sex slaves or forcibly married to IS supporters in Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Dalton Bennett, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014 photo, Iraqi Kurdish forces head to battle Islamic State militants, on the summit of Mount Sinjar, in Iraq. The Islamic State group swept into Sinjar town and surrounding villages in early August, part of their blitzkrieg across northern Iraq. The advance of the extremists struck particular fear here. Much of the population come from the minority Yazidi religious community, a tiny sect that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretics. Hundreds were killed. Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls were taken captive by the militants, turned into sex slaves or forcibly married to IS supporters in Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Dalton Bennett, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014 file photo, Kurdistan Iraqi regional government President Massoud Barzani, center, arrives to support Kurdish forces as they head to battle Islamic State militants, on the summit of Mount Sinjar, in the town of Sinjar, Iraq. On Sunday, Barazani, visited the command center on the mountain top, vowing to his fighters that they would crush the Islamic State fighters wherever they find them. (AP Photo/Zana Ahmed, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014 file photo, bodies of Islamic State militants killed during fighting on Wednesday, when Kurdish forces pushed towards Sinjar Mountain, lie in a ditch in Koban, Iraq. The Islamic State group swept into Sinjar town and surrounding villages in early August, part of their blitzkrieg across northern Iraq. The advance of the extremists struck particular fear here. Much of the population come from the minority Yazidi religious community, a tiny sect that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretics. Hundreds were killed. Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls were taken captive by the militants, turned into sex slaves or forcibly married to IS supporters in Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Dalton Bennett, File)(The Associated Press)

MOUNT SINJAR, Iraq The road to the battlefront plunges straight down the steep face of Mount Sinjar, whipped by a fierce wind. It is littered with trucks and cars that couldn't get up that incline, abandoned by their owners months ago as they fled the rampage of Islamic State group extremists.

Clothes lie piled on the side of the road, left behind by fleeing families unable to carry them.

Over the past week, Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have descended the mountain, battling to liberate the town of Sinjar, a tiny desert community in northern Iraq that the gunmen overran in August, massacring and enslaving hundreds of its residents.

An Associated Press correspondent was with the Kurds. This is his report.

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The fighting, which is still ongoing, has been fierce. One day this week, a Chevy Tahoe rushed up to a Kurdish position on the edge of town, blaring its horn and flashing its lights. The peshmerga fighters inside piled out with the body of a fellow Kurdish fighter hit by a militant sniper's bullet.

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From a remote desert mountaintop in Iraq, Kurds battle to free a town held by Islamic State

RAAF Flight-Lt "Tik" will probably spend Christmas Day like he has spent most other days in recent months - prowling the skies over Iraq in search of Islamic State fighters.

Tik, who cannot reveal his name for security reasons, is one of a few Australian strike pilots taking part in the US-led coalition aimed at rolling back radical Sunni insurgents menacing Iraq.

Tik trained as a pilot at RAAF Base Pearce. He met his wife Nat at the Breakwater pub in Hillarys and they now have twin 18-month-old girls.

It is the second Christmas in a row Tik has not been at home with his family. Last year he was working in Afghanistan in a ground job.

"That means I haven't had a chance to spend Christmas with my twin girls yet," he said.

Together with his back-seat weapons systems officer "Hazy", Tik regularly flies nine-hour missions from a base in the United Arab Emirates over the deserts of central and western Iraq.

RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornets have carried out many combat missions since beginning operations in October.

"Operating over Iraq can be busy and it's quite a dynamic environment," Tik said. "The situation on the ground is equally dynamic, so we take a lot of care to properly identify (IS) targets."

It takes about two hours for the jets to get to and from Iraq.

The Australians orbit over assigned areas waiting for directions to hit a target.

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Iraq air strikes keep pilot busy at Christmas

Eric Holder opens up about policing and race relations in the US / Equality, Race
Eric Holder opens up about policing and race relations in the US Joy Reid sat down with outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder for a one-on-one interview abou...

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Eric Holder opens up about policing and race relations in the US / Equality, Race - Video

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder listens as Steve Dettlebach, U.S. attorney general for the Northern District of Ohio, speaks to reporters at a press conference on Dec. 4, 2014 in Cleveland. (Photo by Angelo Merendino/Getty Images) | Angelo Merendino via Getty Images

Attorney General Eric Holder, who in the past has spoken frankly about racial inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system, will revisit the subject Thursday during an interview with MSNBC's Joy Reid.

In a taped segment that will air on "The Reid Report" Thursday afternoon, Holder and Reid met at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, to discuss the fraught relationship between American law enforcement and many people and communities of color -- an issue that has received national attention this year with the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, among other unarmed black males.

"I certainly think that we have to build up a better relationship between young people, people of color and people in law enforcement," Holder told Reid. "There is distrust that exists on both sides. There's misunderstanding that exists on both sides."

Reid cited the case of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old West African immigrant shot and killed by four NYPD officers in 1999. Diallo was unarmed when he died.

Diallo's death touched off a national uproar, and on Thursday, Reid and Holder noted that things hardly seem to have progressed in the 15 years since.

"What does it say that we essentially are in the same exact place now, so many years later?" asked Reid.

"It means that we, as a nation, have failed," Holder replied. "It's as simple as that. We have failed."

Holder acknowledged that proper training is required among law enforcement officers, and added that there are many other areas in need of improvement.

"One of the things I think we need to do is do a better job of just collecting statistics," Holder said. "We don't necessarily have the basis now to look at this country as a whole and understand how big the problem is. It's one of the things our Bureau of Justice Statistics is trying to come up with, a way in which we start to gather this kind of information. And that'll give us a much better way in which we can get a handle on this problem."

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Eric Holder On Racial Issues And Police Violence In ...

WASHINGTON: The top Democrat on the powerful US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked Sony Pictures Entertainment to hand over details of what he describes as the "devastating cyberattack" recently suffered by the Hollywood studio.

In a letter sent to Sony on Tuesday, Elijah Cummings, the committee's ranking minority member, said Sony's "knowledge, information and experience" would help Congress as it examines federal cybersecurity laws and considers whether they need to be tightened to protect government and consumer data.

The FBI has said the cyberattack was connected to the North Korean government, which was upset by Sony's plan this month to release " The Interview," a comic movie in which two Americans are recruited to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Last week, Sony canceled the film over security concerns but later said it was still looking for ways to release it. On Monday, Representative Brad Sherman invited the studio to screen it at the US Capitol.

In his letter, Cummings asked Sony to turn over information including detailed descriptions of all data breaches the company has suffered in the past year; the rough number of current and former employees and customers affected by the breaches; and the manner in which victims were notified.

He also sought findings from any related forensic investigations or analyses, as well as assessments as to "why the breaches went undetected for the length of time they did."

Cummings asked for a description of any improvements to data protection mechanisms it has implemented since the breach, a description of the procedures that govern the company's relationships with third-party vendors and service providers, and any recommendations on how to improve cybersecurity laws or law enforcement.

He also requested a briefing by Jan. 19 from Sony's chief information security officer or similar top IT executive.

In his letter, he cited reports indicating that in addition to deploying destructive malware, the hackers stole sensitive information, including unreleased films and the personal information of more than 47,000 current and former employees, including social security numbers and healthcare records.

Sherman, also a Democrat, wrote Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton to say that a screening would demonstrate free speech.

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Top congressional Democrat Elijah Cummings asks Sony Pictures Entertainment for hack details