The Kurdish regional government announced Friday that the Iraqi city Sinjar had been reclaimed from the Islamic State.

The Associated Press reports the two-day offensive, led by the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and aided by U.S. air strikes, encountered little resistance from the ISIS militants who had maintained control of the city since last year.

"No one was fighting back," Peshmerga Maj. Ghazi Ali said. The force of 7,500 fighters faced little more than a few roadside explosives and a scattering of snipers, indicating that the terrorist organization may have anticipated the attack and pulled out early.

The victory is a major step forward in the fight against ISIS, as it allowed forces to gain control over the nearby Highway 47. The route serves as the exteremists' supply line from Syrian city of Raqqa, considered the de facto ISIS capital, to Mosul, a captured city in Iraq.

It was also a massive win for the minority Yazidis, thousands of whom were forced to flee from the city when it came under ISIS control a year ago. An estimated 5,000 men and boys may have been slaughtered by the militant group, with many women and girls being sold into slavery.

"Sinjar is very important because it has become a symbol of the injustice against the people of Kurdistan," said Masoud Barzani, president of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

However, some analysts believe the victory will dampen relations between the U.S. and Iraq. The Iraqi government has raised concern that the Kurdish capture of Sinjar will strengthen the Kurdish government's desire to attain statehood.

"The Sinjar operation will remind the key decision makers in Baghdad that the U.S. has a broader sense of strategic cooperation with the Kurds than with Baghdad," said Ayham Kamel of the political consultancy organization Eurasia Group, according to The New York Times.

He added, "The quick gains here against ISIS are going to undermine the broader picture of the unity of Iraq."