any updates about these guys? I heard they are now operating in several muslim countries too.
They've spread a bit, controlling more land mass than government-controlled sections in Syria and Iraq, mostly pushing in North Syria, now. They continue to be organized in Sinai and to its West, which they claim as their Levant. NATO & relateds' non-ground military actions in Syria will likely succeed in keeping Assad in power but fail to actually root out ISIL. ISIL continues to hold many Iraqi and Syrian oil fields. However, the US & rest of NATO have been successful in recruiting Kurds and trying to get them on the West's side, great because the Kurds control a good many oil fields and had ambiguous diplomatic goals. NATO's actions will also prevent ISIL from properly taking Syria over and setting up a true government. Turkey still considers what to do with ISIL. ISIL gave an outline of countries they want to take (old-time Levant) which doesn't include Turkey, and given Turkey hates Assad (it's their condition for joining the war against ISIL), Turkey isn't willing to go all-out and burn all ISIL bridges, getting itself involved in a long occupation just yet. -And anyway, ISIL needs to sell its oil at a steep discount -- Turkey is maybe keeping that in mind and wondering if NATO will refuse both to oust Assad and commit ground troops, and maybe they also wonder what the USG would do if Turkey were to negotiate with ISIL.
Without (yet another) military occupation, it's basically just a slowly failing quarantine. I'll be surprised if it doesn't turn into a ground war for NATO. US/Turkey diplomacy is what everything's waiting on while ISIL continues pushing out. If it fails, NATO almost has to put boots on the ground and occupy Iraq and Syria. IMO.
