Islamic State group jihadists, emboldened by a string of battlefield victories, advanced Thursday to the gates of the Syrian city of Hasakeh after intense fighting with regime troops.
In neighboring Iraq, security forces foiled car bomb attacks by IS on two military bases west of Baghdad, a day after U.S.-led coalition warplanes destroyed a massive jihadist bomb factory.
Despite nine months of U.S.-led air strikes, the militants have made new territorial gains in recent weeks, seizing areas including the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and the capital of Iraq's vast Anbar province.
Now the jihadists have advanced to "500 meters (550 yards) away from the entrance of Hasakeh, after fierce clashes against regime forces south of the city," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
He said IS had seized all military posts in that area of northeastern Syria, including an unfinished prison building and a power plant, after at least six suicide bombers struck on Wednesday.