ISIL Syria.

This is coolbert:

The Islamic State seems to regard the massive Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War with an almost casual indifference? ISIL combatants continue their offensive operations, not merely content with consolidating ground already within their domain?

Yet once more from the DEBKAfile newsletter:

1. "ISIS claims suicide bombing attacks killing 140 people in Homs, Damascus"

21 February.

"The death toll rose to 57 with more than 100 injured Sunday from the two car bombs that exploded Sunday morning in the center of the city of Homs in central Syria - the city's deadliest suicide bombing in recent years. A few hours later, two bomb cars and two suicide bombers killed 83 people, left 180 injured in southern Damascus near the Shiite shrine of Sayeda Zeinab."

2. "ISIS launches two-pronged Syrian offensive"

22 February.

"The deadly ISIS bombing attacks, which Sunday claimed at least 140 lives and injured more than 300 people in Damascus and Homs, were accompanied by a parallel battlefield offensive by the Islamic State, DEBKAfile's military sources report. Monday found jihadist forces on the march north of Aleppo, snatching small towns and villages from various rebel militias, and advancing in the eastern Deir ez-Zour region - despite Russian aerial bombardment - against pinned-down Syrian army forces. On the eastern front, ISIS is intent on seizing control of the Syrian-Iraqi border region."

3. "ISIS in surprise attack cuts off Syrian army supply line to Aleppo"

23 February.

"The Islamic State Tuesday seized from rebel forces the important northern Syrian town of Khanaser southeast of Aleppo with surrounding hills . . . ISIS, which now controls a 20-km section of the Aleppo highway to Hama, is able to cut off the government supply line between Aleppo and central and western Syria."

4. "ISIS attacks city of Aleppo with missiles; over 20 killed"

24 February.

"More than 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded when Islamic State fighters fired several salvos of missiles at the al-Zahra neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday morning."

Combatants of the Islamic State resilient and still remain on the offensive and sending a message, the Russian aerial onslaught notwithstanding.

coolbert.