Scorched Earth

ISIS Advances Despite U.S. Airstrikes

Kurds report beheadings, torched villages.

The United States and its allies pounded ISIS targets in both Syria and Iraq, but the Islamic militants pressed their advance in a Kurdish area, where fleeing refugees told of villages being burned and captives beheaded. Wednesday's strikes marked the second day of a wider air assault against ISIS by the U.S. The goal is to destroy ISIS, which is on a brutal campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate across parts of both Iraq and Syria. But the extremists' gains in the northern Kurdish town of Kobani demonstrated the difficulty the coalition faces in defeating Islamist fighters without strong military allies on the ground.