海角大神

US-led airstrikes pounded positions of the self-styled Islamic State in and around the Syrian city of Raqqa, which the group considers its capital, today.

The group cemented its control over the city and the northern Syrian province of the same name in August, and it has since served as a model - or a horrifying warning, depending on your point of view - of the kind of government they'd like to bring to the whole region.

The area has been for the group and its self-declared caliph for all Muslims, Ibrahim al-Sammarai (often referred to by his nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), a symbol of success and defiance against both the troops of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, more lately, the US. His followers have implemented their harsh version of Islamic law in the city, with public lashings, beheadings, and occasional crucifixions used to keep the citizenry in line.

The UK's Observer reports today, quoting activists from Raqqa, that the rhythm of daily life is now driven by Syrian government airstrikes in the morning, US attacks in the evening, and IS brutality in between.

US officials have repeatedly insisted that they will not coordinate offensives with the Syrian government, which the Obama administration continues to insist it would like to see replaced, but they are now wittingly or not now fighting on the same side in the town.

As for the US-led coalition fighting against IS in Syria and Iraq, American planes are doing most of the work. Fox News reports, citing a Pentagon report it has "obtained," that about 85 percent of coalition strikes against IS targets in a campaign that began in early August have been carried out by the US. The US has carried out 819 attacks, against 157 attacks spread between the forces of ten other countries.

US warplanes were also in action in the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobane, along the Turkish border, AFP reports. A UK-based organization, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, claimed that IS fighters in the town had lost 50 of their members on Saturday - due both to their own suicide bombings, combat with the towns Kurdish defenders, and US bombs.

The Obama administration says its long term goal for Syria is regime change, but that IS is the most important problem. The US has said it's going to construct a system to vet and train a reliably US-friendly rebel army outside of the country, that will eventually return to the country and hopefully win the war. The Washington Post reported new details of the plan, which is far from finalized, on Friday.

Whether a vetting process, that will ultimately hinge on prospective rebels telling the truth rather than saying whatever they think will get them the weapons and training they desire, will work is an enormous open question. During Syria's civil war, now in its third year, rebel formations have splintered and merged based on battlefield success, and many fighters the US once chose to describe as "moderate" have ended up fighting with IS or its jihadi rival Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.