IS Still Gaining Ground Despite Airstrikes

We were on the Syrian-Turkish border near Kilis less than 10 minutes before we saw two airstrikes a few miles away.

I asked a Syrian man showing us around the area whose jets they were and he laughed - the skies above Syria are so crowded, people here have lost track of who's doing the bombing.
It's no wonder then that refugees we met in Kilis were so disinterested in the parliamentary debate on Wednesday that resulted in the UK carrying out its first strikes on Islamic State positions in Syria.
There's a feeling that there is nothing the UK can do to weaken IS that US, French and Jordanian jets can't.
But in the end, it is the refugees who have to live with the consequences of decisions taken by politicians thousands of miles away.
Millions of Syrians live in camps on Syria's border. People we met have grown tired and weary of international intervention that has yet to make their lives any easier.
Barely six miles (10km) from the border is a village that Islamic State fighters moved into and took over on Wednesday near the town of Azaz.
Even after a year of US-led coalition strikes IS are still gaining ground.
We met one man at the Kilis border crossing who had fled the village that was taken over just hours before.
He explained that IS took advantage of Russian airstrikes targeting opposition fighters to move into his village.
"They make use of the chaos, the fighting on the ground, to advance forward and they are using the Russian strikes as cover," he told Sky News.
For many of the women we spoke to, the prospect of more airstrikes that will inevitably cause more civilian casualties is terrifying because their families are still inside Syria.
They explained how IS fighters mix with the local population and have adapted to avoid the strikes, sometimes moving underground.
Even so-called moderate opposition groups who welcome UK strikes have their doubts about their effectiveness.
General Zaher Al Sakat, the former head of Aleppo Military Council, told Sky News "We have four main bridges that IS use to link al Raqqa to the rest of northern Syria.
"If these are destroyed it would cut important supply lines. There are also more IS bases to hit.  But we lack the exact co-ordinates for these strikes and that's the main problem, it's impossible to say exactly where IS are."
The main concern for many who have fled the violence is not just IS but Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
They argue he has killed many more of his people than IS, albeit perhaps without showcasing those crimes in the same way.
A political solution removing Mr Assad from power, say many Syrians, is what should take priority over more military action that has no end in sight.