According to an intelligence brief from The Soufan Group, ISIS is experiencing losses around its "capital" of Raqqa, representing both an operational and symbolic setback for the group.

Although ISIS has continued to expand and hold onto territory in Iraq, the militants have come under increasing pressure in Syria.

ISIS has lost territory in a number of key battles. Most notably, Kurdish YPG forces have dealt ISIS defeats at the towns of Tal Abyad and Ayn Issa.

ISIS once hoped to cut off major Syrian Kurdish regions from one another by holding these towns near the Turkish border. Now, the Kurds have foreclosed on that strategy, beating back the jihadists' momentum and even moving into some of ISIS's most important territory.

(Institute For The Study Of War)

"With the most recent YPG moves against the town of Ayn Issa, the Islamic State is facing perhaps its most serious symbolic and meaningful threat since it declared itself a caliphate almost one year ago," The Soufan Group notes. "Its capital, Raqqa, the center of the group’s authority and image, is under threat."

By seizing and securing Ayn Issa, the YPG, in conjunction with US-led coalition airstrikes, have embedded themselves only 31 miles away from ISIS' de facto capital. The YPG also seized the Syrian military base Liwa-93 from ISIS in the surrounding region. The rapid advance of the Kurdish forces, which ISIS nearly overwhelmed during a crucial battle in the border city of Kobane last summer, has dealt a blow to the militant group, which promoted itself through a doctrine of "remaining and expanding" on multiple simultaneous battlefronts.

Following the YPG's gains, ISIS forces began digging trenches around Raqqa in an attempt to fortify their capital, Reuters reports. ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani also addressed the losses in a Ramadan audio broadcast stating that "God never gave the mujahideen a promise of victory every time."

Although the Kurds do not have immediate plans to attack ISIS in Raqqa, the seizure of territory around the city could deal a significant blow to the militant organization. Tal Abyad, located by the Turkish border, functioned as a key smuggling point through which fighters and supplies could reach the jihadists.

With its opponents taking control of the territory north of Raqqa, ISIS could experience significant logistical disruptions — and face the crisis of enemy forces advancing closer to the heart of the group's power.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Edgar Vasquez, a spokesperson for the US State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, said that "should anti-ISIL forces continue to hold the city, there is the potential for a significant disruption of ISIL’s flow of foreign fighters, illicit goods, and other illegal activity from Turkey into northern Syria and Iraq."

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has hardened its stance less than a week before the deadline for a nuclear deal, with its top leader rejecting a long-term freeze on nuclear research as a constitutional body on Wednesday approved a law banning access to military sites and scientists.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also insisted that Iran will only sign a deal if international sanctions are lifted first, which could further complicate the negotiations. The new law calls for all sanctions to be lifted the first day of any agreement's implementation.

The supreme leader has backed his negotiators amid criticism from hard-liners. But his latest remarks may narrow their room to maneuver ahead of a self-imposed June 30 deadline for a potentially groundbreaking deal with world powers that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions.

Iran's constitutional watchdog, known as the Guardian Council, ratified the legislation banning access to military sites and scientists, making it binding law, according to state TV.

The bill would still allow for international inspections of Iranian nuclear sites within the framework of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The United States -- which is negotiating the deal alongside Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany -- has said the sanctions would be gradually lifted as inspectors verify Iran's compliance.

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FILE - This Sept. 1, 2014 file photo, shows a nuclear research reactor at the headquarters of the At …

Speaking Tuesday night in comments broadcast on Iranian state TV, Khamenei said demands that Iran halt the research and development portion of its nuclear program constitute "excessive coercion."

"We don't accept a 10-year restriction. We have told the negotiating team how many specific years of restrictions are acceptable," Khamenei said. "Research and development must continue during the years of restrictions."

Khamenei said the U.S. is offering a "complicated formula" for lifting sanctions. He said that waiting for the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to verify Tehran's cooperation would take too long.

"Lifting sanctions can't depend on implementation of Iran's obligations," he said.

Khamenei also said he rejects any inspection of military sites or allowing Iranian scientists to be interviewed. Iran's nuclear scientists have been the target of attacks.

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FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 file photo, an Iranian technician works at the Uranium Convers …

The Americans' "goal is to uproot and destroy the country's nuclear industry," he said. "They want to keep up the pressure and are not after a complete lifting of sanctions."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday the negotiations would not be affected by the Iranian leader's remarks.

"This is something that's been going on throughout the negotiations," he said. "It is not new. We are not going to be guided by or conditioned by or affected or deterred by some tweet that is for public consumption or domestic political consumption."

Western nations have long suspected Iran is covertly pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian program, charges denied by Tehran, which insists its atomic program is for purely peaceful purposes.

Negotiations likely will begin in earnest in the coming days in Europe. On Wednesday, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported that deputy foreign ministers Abbas Araghchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi had resumed talks with Helga Schmidt, a deputy of European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. It did not elaborate.

___

Associated Press writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.

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Killer on the Loose? Ohio Town on Edge After 6 Women Disappear Over the Last Year

The FBI is now helping to investigate a string of disappearances and murders that have taken place in a small Ohio town over the past 13 months.

Six women have vanished in the town of Chillicothe since May of last year and four of those have been found dead, authorities said. The women who disappeared were mostly in their 20s and 30s and were mothers. One victim was a grandmother with her third grandchild on the way, authorities said.

Lt. Mike Preston of the Ross County Sheriff’s Office would not say that he believes this is the work of a sole serial killer, but that is the theory supported by many of the relatives of the women.

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"We've got too many women missing in our community and it's time to get some answers," Sheriff George Lavender said at a press briefing on Monday.

Tameka Lynch, a 30-year-old married mother of three, was the second woman to go missing in the area when she vanished in mid-May, 2014.

“I felt that after the first three women went missing a year ago, it had to be someone they all know and trust to even go with them, and it has to be more than one person -- my daughter was not a small person,” Angela Robinson, Lynch's mother, told ABC News.

Most of the six women had a known history of drug use, with at least three having had an addiction toheroin, family members told ABC News. Friends have reported that some of the women were known prostitutes, and while some relatives were unable to confirm that their daughters and nieces were involved in prostitution, Robinson said she thinks that the association kept police from doing more earlier.

“I don’t think they were worried because they were just saying ‘these are just women who are strung out on drugs, or doing whatever,’” Robinson said.

Charlotte Trego is seen in this undated handout photo.

Charlotte Trego

The first to disappear was Charlotte Trego, and she has not been seen since, authorities said.

“I last spoke with Charlotte on May 3, 2014,” her mother Yvonne Boggs told ABC News, “and she told me, 'Mom, I’m ready to come home and get clean.'"

Tameka Lynch is seen in this undated handout photo.

Tameka Lynch

Lynch disappeared the same day as Trego, and it has since been revealed that the two women knew each other. Unlike Trego, however, Lynch’s body was found three weeks later on May 24 in Paint Creek, which runs just outside Chillicothe.

Robinson said that police have told her that it was clear Lynch had died before being put in the water, which Robinson said proves her death was not an accident.

“She was scared to death of water. She wouldn’t go swimming, and she was scared of the woods,” Robinson said.

“She would do anything for anybody. ... That was her biggest downfall,” she said of her daughter.

Wanda Lemons

There was a six-month break in the disappearances until Wanda Lemons, 37, disappeared late last year.

“She called me in November, the 1st of November, and we were talking about Thanksgiving dinner and spending some time with me,” her mother Diana Willett told ABC News.

Lemons, who has not been seen or heard from since, has five children ranging in age from their early 20s to her youngest, 6-year-old Heaven. She also has two grandchildren with her third on the way.

Willett said that her daughter was "using drugs," including heroin, around the time of her death and while she “couldn’t say for sure” if her daughter was working as a prostitute, “I’m not going to deny she wasn’t, because she had before.”

Shasta Himelrick

Shasta Himelrick was the fourth woman to vanish, on Christmas Day, 2014. The Chillicothe Gazettereported that the 20-year-old was pregnant and her body was found in a nearby river on Jan. 2.

Non-fatal levels of oxycodone and cocaine were found in her system at the time of her death, the newspaper reported, and the coroner ruled it a suicide because her body showed "no sign of pre-mortem trauma."

Tiffany Sayre

Tiffany Sayre was the most recent disappearance when she went missing on May 11. The search lasted more than a month for the mother of two toddlers, and her body was found wrapped in a sheet in a wooded area on June 20, Father’s Day.

“Makes me mad, makes me hurt," her father Thomas Kuhn told ABC affiliate WSYX. "All I know is we are going to catch you, whoever you are, we are coming for you.”

Police have not publicly specified what cases they are looking into and refused to say officially that they are connected, but Preston, of the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News that they are looking at six cases.

The Chillicothe Gazette reported that investigators were also looking to see if the shooting death of Timberly Claytor was connected to the other cases, even though police have announced a suspect in that case.

The FBI is now involved in the case and the relatives, many of whom have begun meeting on a weekly basis to discuss the case, said they are happy to have the extra help.

“It’s awesome,” Willett said of the FBI’s involvement. “[They] should’ve done it a long time ago when all this started happening but they're doing their job now.”

ABC News' Ali Ehrlich and Alex Perez contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama took on a heckler head-on at a gay pride month reception at the White House Wednesday, scolding the protester for being disrespectful in "my house."

The heckler had interrupted Obama's remarks by protesting the detention and deportation of gay, lesbian and transgender immigrants.

The president responded, "Hold on a second." When the heckler persisted, Obama, flashing an exasperated look, countered, "OK, you know what?" Wagging his finger and shaking his head, Obama said, "No, no, no, no, no," repeating the word more than a dozen times.

As the heckler continued to talk over him, Obama took it up a notch.

"Hey. Listen. You're in my house," he said to laughter and woos from the crowd. "You know what? It's not respectful when you get invited to somebody. You're not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry ... Shame on you, you shouldn't be doing this."

In his remarks, Obama said that regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in an upcoming decision on gay marriage, there has been an undeniable shift in attitudes across the country. He said he's closely watching the decisions the high court will announce in the coming days, which include a case that could affirm the right of gay couples nationwide to marry.

The president singled out discrimination facing transgender Americans as an area where more progress needs to be made.

Obama heckled at White House gay pride event

The president was interrupted several times while talking about the shift in attitudes on gay marriage.
'You're in my house'