Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Jihadist fighters have begun preparing defences against American air strikes and a feared land-based counter-offensive in Iraq and Syria, according to residents living under their rule.

Fighters from Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) are mounting barricades, increasing checkpoints and booby-trapping the roads into Mosul in northern Iraq, they said. They have also begun sending their families out of the towns to safeguard them from the growing danger.

Air strikes by American and French fighter jets killed scores of men in an ISIS training camp and an arms depot near the city on Thursday and Friday. Residents estimated the number of dead at anywhere between 60 and 200.

ISIS has also evacuated command-and-control centres in both Mosul and Raqqa, the city in Syria which is the informal capital of its “caliphate,” and begun using Yazidi women captives as “human shields” in other key places.

“Two days ago, they left their main headquarters, and they moved to live inside our civilian neighbourhoods,” said one Mosul resident, who asked not to be named. “They took over all the houses abandoned by their inhabitants, such as the houses of the Christians, former officials and people who left the city. They also use the poorer houses as stores for weapons.”

In Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north and Iraqi army and Iranian-backed militia forces nearer Baghdad have stabilized front lines and even pushed ISIS back. The jihadists made big gains in the summer, but since August have lost control of the Mosul Dam and some towns and villages.

In Raqqa, their position is more secure and ISIS has set up its headquarters in the ornate former governor’s palace. They have pushed Syrian regime forces out of a number of major bases, killing hundreds of captives, and have been besieging Kurdish towns to the north.

Up to 100,000 Kurds and other local residents have fled to the Turkish border from the enclave that remains around the city of Kobane, as panic sets in. There were violent scenes on Sunday as refugees headed one way and Kurdish volunteers wanting to join the fighting headed the other. Turkish police trying to control the crowd clashed with protesters who were angry that fighters wanting to join the Kurds in Syria were not being allowed through.

In Raqqa itself, residents said both they and the fighters were afraid of promised American air strikes. ISIS was dispersing its military vehicles and men so they do not to become easy targets.