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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).

12:16 30.11.2015

The BBC's Kriszta Satori tweets that Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that airspace incidents will be hard to prevent as long as there are two coalitions fighting in Syria.

12:13 30.11.2015

Noted Kyrgyz theologian 'attacked by IS supporters,' our Kyrgyz Service reports:

Kyrgyz officials say a well-known theologian has been attacked by supporters of the Islamic State (IS) extremist organization.

Kadyr Malikov, the director of Religion, Law and Politics analytical center in Bishkek, survived a stabbing attack near his house late on November 26.

Kyrgyz Interior Ministry spokesman Bakyt Seitov told RFE/RL on November 30 that two Kyrgyz men suspected in the attack had been detained in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, not far from the Syrian border.

Earlier on November 30, a spokesman of the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security, Rakhat Sulaimanov, told RFE/RL that two other Kyrgyz men suspected of involvement in the attack had been detained in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz authorities have said that hundreds of Kyrgyz nationals are fighting alongside IS militants and other extremist Islamic groups' fighters in Syria and Iraq.

12:11 30.11.2015

The Kremlin has refused to comment this morning on reports that the body of Oleg Peshkov, the Russian pilot killed after his plane was downed last week near the Syrian border, is being flown from Ankara to Moscow.

Asked whether Moscow saw the return of the pilot's remains as an attempt to improve relations between Turkey and Russia, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that he "did not yet want to comment on this matter."

12:08 30.11.2015

TASS has more about the Kremlin's responses this morning to questions from reporters about contact -- or the lack of -- between Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan in the wake of Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border.

Erdogan had twice attempted to telephone Putin and had then send an official request for a meeting at the Paris climate conference on November 30, according to TASS.

Responding to a question about the Kremlin's reaction to these requests, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said:

"Our reaction boils down to [the fact that] the leadership of our country was informed about the requests by the Turkish side regarding a phone call and the possibility of a meeting at the climate summit in Paris."

11:47 30.11.2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Paris climate summit, the Kremlin says.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters this morning that "a meeting with Erdogan is not planned... there will be no such meeting."

However, Putin is likely to meet with U.S. President Obama, Peskov said.

"We're not excluding [a meeting] with Obama, most likely he will speak with Obama on the sidelines of the conference," Peskov told reporters.

Tensions between Russia and Turkey have soared since Turkey downed a Russian jet near the Syrian border on November 24.

11:12 30.11.2015

Syrian government forces have surrounded the town of Salma in northern Latakia Province, the Russian media is reporting.

Government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta claims that militants from the North Caucasus are involved in the fighting:

Now, according to some reports, no more than 2,000 militants remain in the town, although during the active phase of the fighting they numbered more than 10,000. Most of the extremists, whom the Syrian military say include those from the Caucasian regions of Russia and the CIS, have fled Salma. A considerable number of militants were liquidated.

The Chechen-led militant group Ajnad al-Kavkaz is active in northern Latakia, though its presence in Salma is not confirmed. However, Ajnad al-Kavkaz does not have anything like 2,000 militants, and consists of a few dozen Chechens.

10:47 30.11.2015

From our newsdesk:

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has urged Turkey and Russia to set up a bilateral commission to investigate the downing of a Russian fighter jet near the border of Tukey and Syria.

Nazarbaev's office says he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by telephone early on November 30 that he was concerned about Ankara's deteriorating relations with Russia over the November 24 altercation.

The Kazakh president's press service said Nazarbaev told Erdogan that both Russia and Turkey must "demonstrate a responsible attitude" to preserve relations.

Turkey says the plane violated Turkish airspace and its pilot ignored repeated warning calls.

Ankara has expressed sadness, but refused Russian demands to apologize -- insisting that its military followed proper procedures.

Russia insists the plane never left Syrian airspace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 28 ordered economic sanctions against Turkey over the incident.

10:35 30.11.2015

The navigator of the downed Su-24 jet is in hospital in Moscow, pro-Kremlin news site RIA Novosti is reporting this morning.

Konstantin Murakhtin was rescued by Russian and Syrian government special forces in northern Latakia after his plane was shot down by a Turkish F-16 near the Syrian border on November 24. Murakhtin was taken to Russia's Hmeymim air base in northern Latakia, and reporters were informed that he was not seriously injured. Murakhtin even told reporters that he was keen to return to his duties in Syria.

Now RIA says that Murakhtin will remain in hospital for a month.

Murakhtin's wife was allowed to visit him this morning, the report says.

A medical source told RIA that it is normal procedure for a pilot who parachuted out of a plane to spend a month in hospital to undergo a "full examination."

10:24 30.11.2015

Russia's Life News, a pro-Kremlin news site, is reporting that a plane carrying the body of the pilot of the downed Su-24 jet has taken off from Ankara and is heading to Russia.

Life News is quoting Turkey's NTV television channel.

Turkey downed the Russian Su-24 jet near the Syrian border on November 24. The pilot and the navigator both parachuted out of the plane before it crashed but the pilot was shot dead by rebel gunmen.

The Russian Embassy in Ankara tweeted yesterday, November 29, that the body of the pilot would be flown to Moscow today.

10:20 30.11.2015

AFP has tweeted this photograph showing U.S. President Obama paying tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks at the Bataclan concert hall this morning.

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