Voice of America News reports: “Despite facing severe threats in northern Syria from Turkish and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, and Kurdish-led forces threatening their de-facto capital of Raqqa, Islamic State extremists are expanding an offensive in central Syria.

In typical counter-punch fashion, the extremists are using force mobility to open up new fronts to surprise opponents. In recent weeks the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has mounted a series of attacks on a Syrian airbase 90 kilometers east of Homs and on villages in the countryside around the country’s third largest city, say local political activists and rival Syrian militias.

They are ‘highly mobile fighters … able to switch the direction of their attacks’ quickly, according to Scott Atran, an anthropologist who specializes in jihadi organizations…”