As efforts intensify to form an international coalition to battle the Islamic State-led insurgency, the militants with the terrorist group has maintained a tight grip in the northern and eastern regions of Syria.
Syrian government forces are engaged in constant fighting with ISIL in the oil-rich Teshreen region in the east, while the area covering the regime-controlled Deir ez-Zor Airport in the northeast is reportedly under the siege of the militants.
The militant group's presence also threatens the the Free Syrian Army, the main opposition faction battling against the Assad regime, and the Democratic Union Party of the Kurds. The Free Syrian Army controls large swathes of Syria's northwestern regions comprising the cities of Aleppo and Idlib.
