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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).

13:35 27.11.2015

13:50 27.11.2015

Serbian arms maker says his plant made guns used in Paris attacks, our Balkan Service reports:

The director of a weapons plant in Serbia has confirmed that at least two of the assault rifles used by Islamic militants during the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13 were manufactured by his company in the early 1990s.

Milojko Brzakovic, general manager of the Zastava–Oruzje factory in Kragujevac, Serbia, told RFE/RL on November 27 that Serbia's Interior Ministry had asked for information about the specific guns used in the Paris attacks as part of an international investigation.

Brzakovic said investigators were tracing the origins of at least two Zastava M70s used in the attack -- modified versions of the Soviet AK-47 that were the standard issue for Yugoslav military forces since 1970.

He said the Serbian officials had provided "specific numbers" for guns that had been used by militants in Paris and were found at the scenes of the attacks.

Germany's Bild newspaper reported that a man was arrested by German authorities on November 24 for allegedly selling four weapons to the militants who killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.

Bild reported that four assault rifles -- two AK-47s made in China and two Zastava M70s made in what is now Serbia -- were sold illegally online by the suspect on November 7 to a buyer of "Arab descent."

Prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany, on November 27 confirmed the arrest of a 34-year-old man on arms dealing charges but have declined to comment on Bild's report that he supplied guns to the Islamic State (IS) militants who carried out the Paris attacks.

The IS militants attacked France's national stadium, a concert hall, and a series bars and restaurants. (Reuters, AP, Bild)

13:56 27.11.2015

13:56 27.11.2015

14:27 27.11.2015

Russian reprisals against Turkey continue:

15:27 27.11.2015

15:36 27.11.2015

17:49 27.11.2015

21:08 27.11.2015

21:09 27.11.2015

We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again, you can catch up with some of our other Islamic State coverage here.

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