World
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. Reuters writes:
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.
In August, Islamic State's attack on Iraqi Kurdish regions was repulsed and two months later its fighters were driven from the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad. It was also pushed out of two towns near the Iranian border last month.
But with a few exceptions, such as the army's breaking of an Islamic State siege of the country's largest oil refinery in Baiji, the militants' hold over predominantly Sunni provinces north and west of Baghdad has not been seriously challenged. Islamic State's opponents say the recaptured towns show the tide has turned in Iraq and the group is on the defensive.
"The best they can do now is to cut a road or attack a patrol, but any advances and gains of territory have been completely stopped." said Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Badr Organization, a Shi'ite militia which along with Kurdish peshmerga spearheaded the recapture of Saadiya and Jalawla, near the Iranian border.
Islamic State militants have set up training camps in eastern Libya, the head of the US Africa command says. The BBC reports:
Gen David Rodriguez said there could be "a couple of hundred'' IS fighters undergoing training at the sites. He said the camps were at a very early stage, but the US was watching them "carefully to see how it develops".
Libya has been in turmoil since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, with various tribes, militias and political factions fighting for power.
Several Islamist groups are competing for power in the east of the country, with some militants recently declaring allegiance to IS. Syria connection Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Gen Rodriguez said it was not yet clear how closely aligned the trainees were with IS.
"It's mainly about people coming for training and logistics support right now, for training sites," he said. "Right now it's just small and very nascent and we just have to see how it goes."
Correspondents say that in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted Gaddafi, many rebel fighters left to fight with militant groups in Syria, and some are believed to have returned home.
