Militants shift tactics to avoid traditional war

As long as Islamic militants fight the US-led alliance on Washington’s terms, they will lose but they are already reverting back to guerilla warfare which will prolong the conflict, writes David Axe.

THIS summer, Islamic State fighters swept into the expanse of desert straddling the Iraq-Syria border. Riding in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, supported by skilled snipers and at least one tank, the Islamists captured the town of Rabia in Syria .

Kurdish militia fighters — known by its Kurdish acronym YGP — rushed to the neighbouring town of Al Yarubiyah, on the Iraqi side, in a desperate effort to contain the militants’ advance. What followed was a two-month stalemate, as both sides harassed each other with machine guns, mortars and snipers.