Fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) patrol in the streets of the northern Syrian town of Kobani January 28, 2015. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

By Tom Perry and Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State's defeat in Kobani and other recent setbacks in Syria suggest the group is under strain but far from collapse in the Syrian half of its self-declared caliphate.

Islamic State's high-profile defeat by Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-led air strikes capped a four-month battle that cost Islamic State 2,000 of its fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war.

Further from the spotlight, Islamic State has also lost ground to Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish forces elsewhere. Its foes have noted unusual signs of disorganization in its ranks, while reports of forced conscription may indicate a manpower problem as the group wages war in both Syria and Iraq.

There is a long way to go before the tide turns decisively against the group in Syria, where it has faced less military pressure than in Iraq. Islamic State still has a firm grip over its Syrian stronghold in Raqqa province and territory stretching all the way to the other half of its caliphate in Iraq.

The group faces no serious challenge to its rule over those Sunni Arab areas, where it has violently crushed all opposition.

It may yet respond to the Kobani defeat by opening new fronts in Syria. And its capacity to wage psychological warfare was amply demonstrated by this week's video showing the group burning to death a captive Jordanian pilot.

Yet the Kobani defeat marks the first significant setback for Islamic State (ISIL) in Syria since the rapid expansion of its territorial grip there last year following its capture of Iraqi city of Mosul in June.

Islamic State had paid "a very heavy price in Kobani", said Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gilleran, a U.S. military officer and media official in the U.S.-led alliance against Islamic State.

"Outside of Kobani, there are admittedly many areas in Syria where ISIL is uncontested by opposing ground forces. However, there are multiple areas as well where they are indeed under pressure by Syrian Regime Forces, Kurdish elements, and other opposition groups within Syria," he told Reuters.

Adding to the pressure, Islamic State's finances are believed to be under strain because of a global collapse in oil prices. The group has bankrolled itself partly by selling oil in the areas it controls.

DEFENSIVE POSITIONS

Beyond Kobani, Islamic State has recently lost territory to Syrian government forces in an important battle near an air base in Deir al-Zor province, the Observatory has reported.

It has also lost ground to government and Kurdish forces in the northeastern Hasaka region, a province bordering Iraq, according to the Observatory and a Kurdish official.

In the latest advances there, the Syrian military seized 16 villages from Islamic State, killing large numbers of its fighters, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Friday.

The jihadists are hunkering down in defensive positions and their attacks in the area over the past month have been unusually disorganized, said Kurdish official Nasir Haj Mansour of the Kurdish defense authority in the northeast.

"This doesn't mean it lost all of its strength. But it is not at the same level of ferocity as before," he said, speaking via Skype from the area.

The group had deployed its full arsenal in the Kobani battle, including suicide bombers in armored personnel carriers, according to the Observatory. U.S. air support and Iraqi peshmerga Kurdish fighters were crucial in helping the Kurdish YPG militia win back the town.

Kobani was of little strategic significance. But the battle - reported extensively by international media from the adjacent Turkish border - became a focal point for the fight in Syria.

Two Islamic State fighters reached via Skype said the group's withdrawal from Kobani was tactical.

The group has been under greater pressure in Iraq, where it still holds Mosul and much of Anbar province but heavily armed peshmerga have regained considerable ground elsewhere.

One of the fighters said recent attacks in Egypt showed it was broadening its reach.

"Some units of the Islamic State army move from Syria to Iraq and vice versa," said the fighter, who was speaking from Raqqa and did not give his name in a Skype interview.

The U.S.-led air campaign has struck Islamic State fighters and equipment moving from Syria to Iraq as well as targets in Hasaka and elsewhere. Jordan said it had sent tens of fighter jets to pound Islamic State targets in Syria on Thursday in what it said was just the beginning of its retaliation for the killing of the pilot.

The Observatory described it as the most intense bombardment by the U.S.-led coalition since the start of the year, but it is widely acknowledged that it will take ground forces to roll back Islamic State.

In Deir al-Zor province, which links Raqqa to Iraq, the group's grip has tightened, said one rebel leader whose mainstream group operated in the area before Islamic State expelled it.

Yet pockets of resistance have emerged, with small groups staging ambush-style attacks against its fighters.

The government still controls a major air base. Its forces, backed by allied militia, recently took ground from Islamic State around the base.

FORCED CONSCRIPTION

Someone who took part in recent battles against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor described pointless suicide attacks by at least six of its fighters against impenetrable fortifications. He said they lacked a command structure.

"We were puzzled and entertained," said the combatant, who was speaking privately. "You can not just blow yourself up at a barricade."

Meanwhile, the group has launched a campaign of forced conscription in Deir al-Zor, the rebel leader and the Observatory said. "It shows a shortfall," said Rami Abdulrahman, the Observatory director.

The course of the battle in Syria, as in Iraq, will hinge on whether Islamic State's enemies can defeat it in Sunni Arab areas where it is most entrenched.

To this end, the United States is planning to arm and train members of the mainstream opposition to President Bashar al-Assad. But it has yet to start recruiting and there are many questions over how will proceed: the non-jihadist opposition groups are weakest of all the parties in the conflict.

Washington has shunned the idea of cooperation with Assad, though there is indirect cooperation as they share the same air space.

The Kurdish YPG militia, already a U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State, has shown grit fighting Islamic State but its potency will likely diminish beyond the Kurdish areas.

A senior Western diplomat said the significance of Islamic State's recent setbacks should not be exaggerated, but added: "There’s no doubt that the heady days of ISIS are over."

Left to its own devices in Sunni Arab areas, Islamic State will be able to regroup. "Islamic State is on the defensive, it is disorganized, like drops of mercury that have been separated. But they can come back together again," said one diplomat.

(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Beirut, Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington and Louis Charbonneau in New York; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Empty buses, intended for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the village of Debaltseve, drive in the direction of the village to evacuate the residents, outside Yenakieve town, eastern Ukraine February 6, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

HORLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Convoys of buses converged from two sides on the town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine on Friday after separatist rebels and government forces appeared to have patched together a truce to allow civilians to be evacuated.

A Reuters correspondent outside the town of Horlivka, west of Debaltseve, said around 30 empty buses were heading towards Debaltseve under an escort from monitors from the OSCE security watchdog and rebel police and military.

Another Reuters witness said a similar convoy, controlled by Ukrainian forces, was heading to Debaltseve from Artemivsk, east of the town.

Government forces have been holding on to Debaltseve, a strategic rail hub linking the two separatist-held regions of the east, for several weeks despite prolonged artillery and tank attacks by the separatists.

The temporary truce was declared as German and French leaders pressed forward with a new peace plan to end the crisis in Ukraine.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in a conflict which has caused the biggest crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.

The rebels said the truce came into force at 9 a.m. Moscow time and witnesses said there was no firing between the two sides as the convoys moved towards Debaltseve.

But the Kiev military did not confirm any formal truce agreement.

Regional police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said on Facebook that one person had been killed in rebel artillery shelling of the town in the early morning.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Gleb Garanich, Writing by Richard Balmforth, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

A general view of the destruction after what activists said were at least 20 air strikes by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Douma neighbourhood of Damascus February 5, 2015. REUTERS/ Mohammed Badra

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air force strikes killed 82 people in an opposition district outside Damascus following rocket attacks by rebels that hit the government-controlled center of the capital, a monitoring group said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, said the air force conducted 60 strikes on the Eastern Ghouta district on Thursday and into Friday. Eighteen children and 11 fighters were among the dead, it said.

High death tolls from air attacks are not rare but the Observatory said the focused barrage was a response to rocket attacks by Islam Army insurgents on Thursday, which killed 10 people in Damascus.

Syria's state news agency SANA said on Friday that the army had "eliminated scores of terrorists, the majority of them from the so-called 'Islam Army' organization in the villages of Eastern Ghouta in the Damascus countryside."

It said the army had also carried out a series of strikes in the district of Jobar, and special operations in Zamalka and Erbin.

The Observatory said 26 people were also killed in insurgent-held areas of Aleppo on Thursday.

A message on Thursday on a Twitter account thought to belong to Islam Army chief Zahran Alloush said Thursday's rocket attack was revenge for what the Syrian military had done to Eastern Ghouta. Alloush described Damascus as a "military zone" and said his group would respond to any air force strikes.

Islam Army was formed by a merger of rebel factions in 2013 and has received backing from Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations says 200,000 people have been killed since 2011 in Syria's civil war, which started with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) listens as his fellow Republicans speak to the media after a conference meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington January 21, 2015. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior Israeli official suggested on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misled into thinking an invitation to address the U.S. Congress on Iran next month was fully supported by the Democrats.

Netanyahu was invited by the Republican speaker of the house, John Boehner, to address Congress on March 3, an invitation Boehner originally described as bipartisan.

The move angered the White House, which is upset about the event coming two weeks before Israeli elections and the fact that Netanyahu, who has a testy relationship with President Obama, is expected to be critical of U.S. policy on Iran.

"It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ultimately became clear was a one sided move and not a move by both sides," Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio on Friday.

The interviewer asked if that meant Netanyahu had been "misled" into believing Boehner's invitation was bipartisan, a characterization Hanegbi did not contest.

Asked whether the prime minister should cancel or postpone the speech, Hanegbi said: "What would the outcome be then? The outcome would be that we forsake an arena in which there is a going to be a very dramatic decision (on Iran)."

The invitation has caused a furor in Washington, leading to much criticism of Boehner by Democrats and repeated statements by Boehner and other Republicans explaining their position.

Top Democratic lawmaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday the event was "politicized" and she hoped it would not take place - piling pressure on Netanyahu after the White House said it would not meet him during the visit.

Netanyahu has denied seeking electoral gains or meddling in internal U.S. affairs with the speech, in which he is expected to warn world powers against agreeing to anything short of a total rollback of Iran's nuclear program.

A Netanyahu spokesman declined to comment on Hanegbi's comments on Friday. Hanegbi is a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud party.

Acknowledging that Democrats had been "pained" by the invitation, Hanegbi said Netanyahu and Israeli emissaries were making "a huge effort to make clear to them that this is not a move that flouts the president of the United States".

Yet Hanegbi said the address to Congress could help pass a bill, opposed by Obama, for new U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"The Republicans know, as the president has already made clear, that he will veto this legislation. So in order to pass legislation that overcomes the veto, two-thirds are required in the Senate. So if the prime minister can persuade another one or two or another three or four, this could have weight," he said.

Hanegbi said he was not aware of any Israeli polling that showed the speech would help Netanyahu in the March 17 election, where Likud is running neck-and-neck against the center-left.

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Ralph Boulton)