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A woman rests near rubble in the Syrian town of Darat Izza in Aleppo Province on February 28.
A woman rests near rubble in the Syrian town of Darat Izza in Aleppo Province on February 28.

Live Blog: Tracking Islamic State

Follow all of the latest developments as they happen.

Latest News For February 29

-- The United States Army's elite Delta Force is on the verge of beginning operations to target, capture or kill top IS operatives in Iraq, after several weeks of covert preparation, an administration official with direct knowledge of the force's activities told CNN.

-- Syrian government forces have regained control of a road used by the army to access Aleppo, after making advances against Islamic State fighters, a monitoring group and state television reported.


-- Authorities in Iraq say the death toll from a double bombing at a market in Baghdad’s Shi’ite neighborhood of Sadr City rose to 73 on February 29 after several critically wounded victims died overnight.

-- Tajik media are reporting that a woman known to be the second wife of Gulmurod Halimov, the fugitive Tajik colonel who defected to the IS group, has left for Syria along with the couple's four young children.

-- The UN is poised to begin delivering aid to people living in besieged areas of Syria, making use of a truce brokered by the United States and Russia. The first deliveries are planned for Feb. 29, with aid due to reach about 150,000 Syrians in besieged areas over the next five days.

-- A truce negotiated between Syrian rebels and the government has caused a dramatic decrease in airstrikes around rebel-held territory, but there were few celebrations, with many residents suspecting a trick, CNN report.

* NOTE: Live blog posts are time-stamped according to Central European Time (CET).

17:24 19.11.2015

In the wake of last week's Paris attacks, the Refugee Council -- a British NGO that works with refugees -- has said that the IS group wants Europe to turn its back on asylum seekers.

The Paris attacks led to debates over whether terrorists have been able to exploit the refugee crisis by traveling to Europe alongside genuine asylum seekers.

But demonizing refugees "could also risk playing right into Isis's hands," the Refugee Council's Lisa Doyle writes in The Guardian, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"[The] idea of Syrian refugees finding a safe home in Europe would not go down well with the “clash of civilisations” narrative that Isis desperately attempts to propagate," Doyle adds.

"A hostile, unwelcoming Europe that pulls up the drawbridge and leaves refugees to die would be much more convenient."

IS has previously warned Syrians against leaving its "caliphate" -- its name for the lands under its control -- saying that those seeking asylum in Europe were committing a "dangerous major sin."

17:37 19.11.2015

This ends our live blogging of the aftermath of the Paris attacks for November 19. Be sure to check back here tomorrow for our continuing coverage.

09:31 20.11.2015

The Independent has obtained the text of a draft United Nations Security Council resolution to declare war against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq.

The resolution authorizes "all necessary measures" against IS in Syria and Iraq, could be adopted in days.

The text of the draft resolution, shared with the The Independent, calls on member states "with the capacity to do so" to “take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, on the territory under the control of Isil [IS] in Syria and Iraq, to redouble and co-ordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by Isil… and to eradicate the safe haven they have established in Iraq and Syria."

The draft resolution goes on to say that, by "its violent extremist ideology, its terrorist acts, its continued gross systematic and widespread attacks directed against civilians,", IS "constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security."

09:35 20.11.2015

Germany's intelligence chief has warned of a "terrorist world war," the BBC reports.

Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, told the BBC that IS had made Europe its enemy and European countries had to "assume something like Paris can happen any time."

09:42 20.11.2015

Could Salah Abdeslam, the suspected terrorist who remains the target of a massive police hunt after the November 13 attacks in Paris, also be on the run from IS?

Investigators are increasingly led to believe that Abdeslam panicked on November 13 and did not carry out the grisly assignments given him by IS, according to The Independent.

Abdeslam had wandered around Paris for seven hours on the night of November 13 and police have traced a phone call he made at 10:30 p.m. while the massacre at the Bataclan stadium was under way. He had asked friends to drive from Brussels to pick him up.

"Nothing [in Abdeslam’s movements] answers the description of a pre-planned escape," one French police source told The Independent.

"It is possible he panicked or chickened out of killing himself. It is possible that he was disgusted by what he had been involved in or that his explosive suicide belt failed to detonate."

10:04 20.11.2015

The Paris prosecutor's office says that a third body has been found in the apartment raided by police during a search for suspects in the November 13 Paris attacks, AP are reporting.

The office has said that the body is that of a woman but her identity is not yet clear.

10:18 20.11.2015

French news sites are reporting that the suspected ringleader of the November 13 Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was seen on closed-circuit video on the night of the attacks at the Croix de Chavaux metro station in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil.

BFM TV reports that its sources say Abaaoud was seen on video footage from two cameras at the metro station at around 10 p.m. on November 13, at the time when the massacre at the Bataclan stadium was ongoing.

The Croix de Chavaux metro station is 250 meters from the place where a black Seat car believed to have been used by some of the Paris attackers was found. Several Kalashnikovs were found in the car, French judicial sources said.

10:31 20.11.2015

The Paris prosecutor says that a passport belonging to Hasna Aitboulahcen has been found in a handbag in an apartment in Saint-Denis raided by police this week.

Aitboulahcen has been named by police sources as the female suicide bomber who blew herself up following an exchange with police at the start of the raid.

The Paris prosecutor's office warned that Aitboulahcen has not yet been formally identified.

10:40 20.11.2015

Some 170 people have been taken hostage at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako by gunmen shouting "Islamic slogans," Reuters is reporting.

The identity of the group to which the Bamako gunmen belong is not yet known.

Some 10 gunmen are thought to have stormed the Radisson Blu hotel, which is near government ministries and diplomatic offices.

The hostages include French nationals, "at least seven" Chinese people and six Turkish Airlines staff members, reports are saying.

There are unconfirmed reports that several people have been killed.

The New York Times World Twitter account tweeted this AP photo of people fleeing the hotel after it was stormed by militants.

10:42 20.11.2015

AFP say at least three people killed in the Mali hotel siege. It's still not clear to which group the gunmen belong.

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