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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).

15:27 25.11.2015

Russia's Foreign Ministry has reacted angrily to media reports that Turkish and Russian Foreign Ministry officials have agreed to a meeting.

The Ministry is saying that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has not given his agreement to proposals for a meeting from his Turkish counterpart.

TASS has published a rather scathing response to the matter from Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

We have noted the report by Reuters that cites a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and talks about an alleged agreement being reached for a meeting between the foreign ministers in the coming days.

Such statements by the Turkish Foreign Ministry once again point to a lack of basic concepts of ethics and respect, and are representative in terms of veracity of everything that we are hearing from Ankara.

Zakharova said Lavrov had not agreed to "a single one of the many requests for a meeting" made during his phone call this morning with his Turkish counterpart.

"A big request to Turkish officials to stop the flow of information that does not correspond with the truth," Zakharova added.

15:15 25.11.2015

Russia's Foreign Ministry has published details of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's phone call this morning with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Lavrov "expressed outrage" at the downing of the Su-24 jet, the Foreign Ministry report says.

It was emphasized that, with the shooting down of the Russian plane that had been carrying out tasks as part of Russia's anti-terrorist campaign in Syria and which had not violated the borders of Turkish air space, the Turkish leadership had, in essence, taken the side of IS.

Judging by everything, the action was deliberate and pre-planned, and pursued a very definite purpose.

[Lavrov] noted in connection with this Turkey's participation in the illegal trade of oil with IS, which goes through the area where the plane was downed, and about the deployment there of terrorist infrastructure, weapons and ammunitions caches, control centers.

15:08 25.11.2015

The downing of the Su-24 by Turkey yesterday will make a solution to the Syrian crisis even harder, but Russia is not likely to retaliate against Turkey commercially or militarily, says analyst Ali H.Soufan of the Soufan Group think tank.

[The] most unfortunate consequence will be that Russia will now roll back from its apparent willingness to consider solutions for Syria that do not depend on [Syrian President Bashar] Assad remaining in power. This is a key demand for Turkey, and in the macho world occupied by Erdogan and Putin, neither will want to appear to have blinked first...

14:48 25.11.2015

The Russian phrase for "stab in the back" is now a hashtag on Twitter and is being used by Russians protesting against the downing by Turkey of a Russian Su-24 jet yesterday.

The hashtag has also been used by pro-Kremlin media outlets RIA Novosti and Life News for their tweets about the Su-24 incident.

The phrase was used by Russian President Vladimir Putin who said yesterday that the downing of the plane was a "stab in the back" by Turkey.

14:44 25.11.2015

Several hundred people demonstrated outside the Turkish Embassy in Moscow today, hurling stones, bottles, eggs and tomatoes in protest after yesterday's downing by Turkey of a Russian jet in Syria, according to BBC Russian.

Photos of the demonstration and its aftermath are being shared on social media and the Russian phrase "Turkish Embassy in Moscow" is trending on Twitter in the Russian capital.

In some of the photos, banners with the slogan "Turkey - Stab In The Back" can be seen. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the downing of the jet was a "stab in the back" by Turkey.

14:32 25.11.2015

What Now? Experts Weigh In On Implications Of Russian Jet Downing

What are the wider implications after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkey close to the Syrian border?

By Christian Borys

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country does not want an escalation in tensions with Russia, after its jets November 24 shot down a Russian SU-24 warplane that Ankara said had strayed into its airspace close to the Syrian border. One of the pilots was killed -- possibly by a Syrian rebel group operating in the area -- a loss Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "stab in the back."

To help understand the significance of the events, and what they mean going forward, we asked some of the world’s leading military experts and analysts to weigh in.

READ MORE HERE

14:27 25.11.2015

As well as its diplomatic response to the downing of the Su-24 jet, Russia has been responding militarily, launching heavy attacks today against rebel-held areas in Latakia province near where its jet was shot down by Turkey yesterday.

The attacks have targeted Turkoman gunmen as well as militants from Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al Nusra Front, reports say.

The Britain-based activist group The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that there had been 12 Russian air strikes on the northern Latakia countryside.

The strikes occured as Syrian government forces clashed with Nusra and Turkoman militants in the Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman areas, according to Reuters, who are reporting this information from Turkoman fighters:

A Turkmen commander said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean were also hitting the area, as well as heavy artillery shelling.

Hassan Haj Ali, the head of Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, a rebel group operating in western Syria, also said there were fierce battles in the area, with Russian aircraft supporting pro-government forces.

The Russian Su-24 jet crashed yesterday in the Jabal Turkman area.

14:13 25.11.2015

All Russia's tour operators are cancelling charter flights and tours to Turkey, following recommendations from the Foreign Ministry that Russians should not travel to Turkey in the wake of the downing of a Russian Su-24 jet, the country's Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) has said.

Dmitry Gorin, the Vice President of ATOR said that Russians who had already traveled to Turkey would not be returned home to Russia but would "holiday as planned."

According to ATOR, there are around 10-11,000 tourists from Russia in Turkish resorts.

Some 6,000 Russians will either have to amend or cancel their prebooked vacations in Turkey because of the cancelation of charter flights.

13:57 25.11.2015

More from our news desk on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's comments today on the downing of the Su-24 jet:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey along the Turkey-Syrian border was likely "a planned provocation" and said Ankara's NATO allies are trying "to cover up for what the Turkish Air Force did yesterday."

Lavrov made the comments to reporters in Moscow on November 25, one day after a Turkish fighter shot down a Russian warplane that was conducting air strikes in northern Syria. One Russian pilot was killed in the incident.

Lavrov said NATO and the European Union has made "rather strange assessments" of the incident and lamented that they did not express "any regret or condolences."

He said Moscow doubts the incident was unintentional and said Russia has gathered information about the Su-24 downing that it is ready to share with the international community.

He added that Moscow has no plans to send diplomats to Turkey or to receive high-level Turkish guests. However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he spoke by phone with Lavrov and the two had agreed to meet in the near future.

Based on reporting by RIA-Novosti and TASS

13:09 25.11.2015

Russian and Turkish ministers have agreed to hold talks on the Su-24 jet downing, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said, according to AP.

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