Iraqi Kurdish refugees wait with children in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey April 8, 1991. Reuters photographers have chronicled Kurdish refugee crises over the years. In 1991 Srdjan Zivulovic documented refugees in Cukurca who had escaped a military operation by Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq aimed at “Arabising” Kurdish areas in the north. Hundreds of thousands fled into Turkey and Iran. Images shot in recent months show familiar scenes as crowds of people flee Islamic State militants in Syria. There are as many as 30 million Kurds, spread through Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but tend to feel more loyalty to their Kurdishness, rather than their religion. (Photo by Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)

Fighters of the Free Syrian Army fire an anti-aircraft weapon in the rebel-held Mashhad area in southeastern Aleppo, on December 12, 2016, as they battle Syrian government forces during an operation to retake the embattled city. The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its “final phase” after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A boy poses for a photo as he plays with a homemade toy gun in Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, November 22, 2016. For months, residents of the Iraqi town of Qayara have lived in the darkness from a cloud of toxic fumes released by oil fields lit by retreating Islamic State fighters. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

Military enthusiasts take part in a re-enactment of the World War II battle of Stalingrad at the “Stalin Line” memorial, near the village of Goroshki, Belarus, February 27, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Revellers battle with tomato pulp during the annual “Tomatina” (tomato fight) festival in Bunol near Valencia, Spain, August 31, 2016. (Photo by Heino Kalis/Reuters)

Ukrainian soldiers who just came from battle stand near an ambulance at a 47th Brigade field hospital near Avdiivka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on Friday, May 10, 2024. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)

Despite the mild 14°С shoppers and commuters battle against the wind and rain on Waterloo Bridge, London on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Alex Lentati/London News Pictures)

A displaced Iraqi boy leads his animals to safety after escaping from Islamic State controlled village of Abu Jarboa during clashes with IS militants near Mosul, Iraq November 1, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)