Accessibility links

Breaking News
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).

12:49 30.11.2015

TASS has more on the economic measures against Turkey that Russia has announced today amid soaring tensions following last week's downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that sales of package tours to Turkey will cease immediately and that all charter flights will be stopped as soon as all Russian tourists have been brought home.

13:28 30.11.2015

This from CNN's Jake Tapper on Salah Abdeslam, the Belgian national who is being sought by police in connection with the November 13 attacks in Paris. Abdeslam has been the subject of an international manhunt, and is now thought to have escaped to Syria.

13:32 30.11.2015

Russian air strikes in Syria must clearly target only the IS group, France's foreign ministry has said in response to questions over recent raids by Moscow on ethnic Turkmen rebels in the north of the country, Reuters is reporting.

Asked about strikes since Friday on ethnic Turkmen areas near the Syrian-Turkish border, foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said: "There can be no possible ambiguity on the objectives being pursued, which must only target the destruction of Daesh (IS)."

13:37 30.11.2015

Russia has cancelled its planned Year of Russian-Turkish Cooperation, which was set to start in 2016, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets has said.

13:44 30.11.2015

The Russian pilot killed after his plane was downed by Turkey near the Syrian border is to be buried in the city of Lipetsk at the pipe factory cemetery, TASS is reporting, citing Lipetsk officials.

The pilot, Oleg Peshkov, is to be buried in the central avenue of the cemetery, which is close to the center of Lipetsk.

Details of the funeral have not yet been confirmed.

Lipetsk officials are also considering whether to erect a monument to Peshkov in the city's Aviators Square, according to TASS.

13:47 30.11.2015

The official English-language Twitter account of the Russian government has this to say about today's annoucements of economic measures against Turkey in the wake of the downing of a Russian war plane near the Syrian border.

14:02 30.11.2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. President Obama during the lunch break at the Paris climate conference, says Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Smirnov.

14:15 30.11.2015

The United States and NATO had nothing to do with Turkey's decision to down the Russian Su-24M jet near the Syrian border, Douglas Lute, the U.S. Permanent Represenatitive to NATO has told Russia's TASS news agency.

"It was a sovereign decision of Turkey," TASS quoted Lute as saying.

Lute added that Turkey had been in contact wuth NATO regarding Russian violations of Turkish air space since the start of October.

"In this sense, there is contact with Turkey. But regarding this specific incident, there was no coordination here," Lute said, according to TASS.

Lute also said that there could not be any single coalition in Syria that includes Russia because Russia has different goals to the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition,

"Our goals are to defeat IS, Russia's goals are to support the Syrian regime against the opposition...Russia has to do much more in the fight against IS, right now combating this group is a secondary goal for Russia," Lute was quoted as saying.

14:19 30.11.2015

The German government is planning to send up to 1,200 troops to help in the fight against IS, AP reports:

Defense Ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff said Monday that the figure would be an "upper limit" for the number of troops needed to provide support for and operate reconnaissance aircraft, tanker planes and a warship.

The Cabinet is due to agree the mission's mandate Tuesday and put it to Parliament for approval. German troops won't actively engage in combat.

Officials rejected any suggestion that Germany might cooperate with troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad in the fight against IS.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that "if the Syrian regime says it's fighting terrorists on its own territory, then it should do so, please."

14:32 30.11.2015

The Russian media has more details of Putin's meeting with U.S. President Obama on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Obama had "expressed regret over the incident with the Russian plane that was downed by the Turkish air force in Syria."

The two leaders also discussed Syria, with both agreeing on the need for a political settlement to the conflict, Peskov said.

"Putin and Obama spoke in favor of moving toward the start of a political settlement," Peskov said, adding that the meeting between the two leaders had been agreed this morning, lasted around half an hour, and was "quite intense."

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG