ISIS launches two-pronged Syrian offensive

The deadly ISIS bombing attacks, which Sunday claimed at least 140 lives and injured more than 300 people in Damascus and Homs, was 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 in the eastern Deir ez-Zour region, where they are advancing slowly but relentlessly under 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.