News Analysis: IS still on defensive despite coastal bombings in Syria

Despite a spate of recent bomb attacks by the Islamic State (IS) in cities along Syria's coast this week, the terror group remains on the defensive, U.S. experts said.

The United States has led a bombing campaign against the IS for more than a year, and critics have slammed U.S. President Barack Obama for taking what they call a half-hearted approach. But now the terrorists seem to be on the defensive, at least in the Middle East.

Earlier this week, the IS unleashed a spate of deadly bombings in a number of Syrian coastal cities in a bid to prove that it is still relevant. While the bombings killed dozens in the government controlled area, experts said the attacks were more symbolic than anything.

"No one should necessarily equate isolated IS bombings ... with overall strength," Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office, told Xinhua.

In fact, well before the emergence of the IS, al-Qaida in Iraq and its Sunni Arab sympathizers had carried out even more regular bombings against the government and Shi'ite targets in and near Baghdad, White noted.

"In fact ... IS has been losing territory," he said.

Indeed, the radicals have suffered several defeats over the past year, such as in Syria's Aleppo region and Palmyra, as well as the sweeping offensive across northern Syria by the U.S.-backed YPG, also known as the Kurdish People's Protection Units.

In Iraq, the IS lost the cities of Ramadi, al-Hit and al-Rutba, and the terror group is also facing a new Iraqi offensive to close in on and retake the city of Falluja -- its original foothold in Iraq.

Many of these gains have been enabled not only by U.S. airstrikes, but also by U.S. assistance to the YPG, as well as the Iraqi Army, White noted.

"So, in effect, without the commitment of U.S. ground forces to the fighting, IS has been losing lots of important real estate," White said.

Still, there have been drawbacks in both Syria and Iraq. In Iraq, it appears that Washington has turned a blind eye to the re-inclusion of substantial Shi'ite militia forces in government operations, such as anti-Sunni Arab forces, and will likely commit atrocities and abuses sustaining Sunni Arab grievances.

Such abuses originally gave rise to the IS which launched a rebellion against the Shi'ite-dominated Baghdad government, White said.

White added that, at this point, the United States should simply be pouring more arms and ammunition into the hands of the YPG and Iraqi government forces.

Washington, however, should be reluctant to commit too many U.S. advisors, because with the IS lashing out more asymmetrically with bombings, advisors will likely be more vulnerable, White said. Endi