A/HRC/31/68 securing the defensive perimeters around some of their strategic positions and lines of communications. 22. The Government has also made important gains in the governorates of Homs and Damascus countryside through local ceasefire agreements reached after months of besiegement and bombardment. 23. Severely constrained by a shortage of manpower, government regular ground forces have relied on a growing number of foreign militia groups in their recent attacks, implying an increasing fragmentation of the government forces and the decentralization of Syrian State authority. 24. Anti-government armed groups have failed to sustain the offensive momentum that allowed them to make significant gains in the first months of 2015. Apart from the minor advance in northern Hamah, they have been pushed back into a defensive posture in most of the other contested areas, subsequently losing several strategic positions. 25. The capacity of the rebels to confront multiple opponents simultaneously on different front lines has decreased in recent months, partly owing to the intensified airstrikes against their command centres, logistical networks and lines of communications. Disagreements among certain groups with regard to the political process have also affected their operational cohesion. 26. Jabhat al-Nusra was one of the parties most engaged in opposing the most recent attacks by State forces. The terrorist group has continued to control large parts of Idlib while maintaining an influential presence throughout rebel-held areas in Dar’a, Damascus countryside and Homs. 27. In spite of divergences over political and governance matters, Jabhat al-Nusra and anti-government armed groups have continued to coordinate most of their military operations when facing the other belligerents. The group has been particularly targeted by the increased aerial bombardments in Idlib and Latakia; reports indicated significant human and material losses. 28. ISIS remains in control of large swathes of the Syrian eastern and north-eastern governorates, while maintaining smaller pockets in other areas, including around Damascus. Recently, the terrorist group has come under mounting military pressure from different belligerents, including, in particular, SDF in Hasakah and Ar Raqqah, and progovernment forces in Homs and Aleppo. In reaction to its recent losses in eastern Aleppo and in Al-Hawl near the Iraqi border, the group has escalated its military pressure on government-held areas in Dayr al-Zawr and eastern Homs countryside. 29. The coalition led by the United States and the Russian air strikes have diminished the financial and operational capabilities of ISIS, but failed to eradicate its ability to attack sensitive areas, such as the Hamah-Aleppo supply line or in the country’s central corridor in eastern Homs. As its ability to conduct symmetric operations has been hampered, ISIS has gradually reverted to its preferred tactics, including the extensive use of explosive devices and the conduct of operations in enemy territory, often by means of sleeper cells. 30. YPG and allied Arab and Assyrian armed groups have made significant gains in their military operations targeting ISIS in the northern governorates. Recently integrated into SDF, they have launched new attacks in Hasakah, Aleppo and Ar Raqqah, pushing farther south into territory held by ISIS and inflicting significant damage to their lines of communications. Benefitting from the air strikes made by the international coalition led by the United States, they have increasingly threatened key towns held by ISIS, including AlShaddadeh (Hasakah) and Manbij (Aleppo). 6