The coalition has managed to push IS out of the Iraqi cities of Tikrit and Ramadi, as well as an ever-increasing stretch of Syrian-Turkish borderland.
Enemies of the “caliphate”, backed by (mostly) US fighter jets, are now bivouacked 50km (30 miles) from the IS “capital” of Raqqa, in northern Syria.
Yet IS’ hold on its most valuable strategic terrain, the areas seized either in or before 2014, is still uncontested.
It is entrenched in Mosul and Raqqa and the Sunni Arab tribal heartland of the Euphrates river valley, which stretches from eastern Syria to western Iraq.
Read it all.
(BBC) ISIS: An invincible force?
The coalition has managed to push IS out of the Iraqi cities of Tikrit and Ramadi, as well as an ever-increasing stretch of Syrian-Turkish borderland.
Enemies of the “caliphate”, backed by (mostly) US fighter jets, are now bivouacked 50km (30 miles) from the IS “capital” of Raqqa, in northern Syria.
Yet IS’ hold on its most valuable strategic terrain, the areas seized either in or before 2014, is still uncontested.
It is entrenched in Mosul and Raqqa and the Sunni Arab tribal heartland of the Euphrates river valley, which stretches from eastern Syria to western Iraq.
Read it all.