Islamic State Fighters Continue To Hold Their Ground After Months Of Air Strikes And Ground Assaults

Islamic State Cedes Little Ground Despite Air Attacks -- Reuters

(Reuters) - They have made enemies across the globe and endured three months of U.S.-led air strikes, but Islamic State fighters have surrendered little of their self-declared caliphate to the broad sweep of forces arrayed against them.

Across thousands of square miles in Syria and Iraq, the radical Islamists face an unlikely mix of Iraqi and Syrian soldiers, Shi'ite and Kurdish militias and rival Syrian Sunni Muslim rebels.

While they have lost towns on the edges of their Iraqi realm, especially in ethnically mixed areas where their hardline Sunni theology holds little appeal, they have consolidated power in parts of their Sunni Muslim heartland.

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More News On The War Against The Islamic State

Siege in West Iraq Shows Failure to Reverse Islamic State Gains -- Bloomberg
US-led coalition halting Islamic State’s advances, officials say -- Boston Globe, Washington Post
Kerry: US-led coalition has 'Islamic State' on the run -- Deutsche Welle
Islamic State militants attack last major military base in eastern Syria -- AP
Islamic State launches attack on Syrian army air base: activists -- Reuters
Islamic State Attacks Government Airbase in Eastern Syria -- Sputnik
Iraqi Security Forces Repel (Another) Major IS Attack On Ramadi -- Radio Free Europe
Islamic State militants kill 16 Iraqi soldiers on Syria border -- Reuters
Coalition success seen in Islamic State’s cutoff of cellphone service in Mosul -- McClatchy News
Iraq's divisions will delay counter-offensive on Islamic State -- Reuters
Global Coalition Stepping up Against Islamic State -- AP
U.S. lawmakers set last-ditch push for Islamic State war authorization -- Reuters