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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).

16:27 30.11.2015

The plane carrying the body of Oleg Peshkov, the Russian pilot killed after his Su-24 jet was downed near the Syrian border has landed in Russia, RIA Novosti reports.

The plane carrying Peshkov's remains landed at Chkalovsky airport, a military airport base 31 kilometers northeast of Moscow. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met the plane and Peshkov was given military honors, according to the report.

16:20 30.11.2015

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller has tweeted more details of U.S. President Obama's meeting today with Russia's President Putin on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit.

16:13 30.11.2015

More from CNN on the report that French intelligence services now believe Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam is in Syria.

That information comes from a source close to the investigation and a counterterrorism source.

The source close to the investigation also told CNN that police now believe that Abdeslam bought detonators in France before the November 13 attacks. Le Parisien reported that Abdeslam had bought detonators from a fireworks shop in Saint-Ouen l'Aumone, just north of Paris.

If Abdeslam has indeed managed to flee to Syria, he will not be the first European terror suspect to do so. In January, Hayat Boumeddiene, who went on the run after her husband Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman, crossed into Syria on January 8. On January 9, Boumeddiene's husband Coulibaly went on to take shoppers hostage in a Paris kosher supermarket, killing four people.

16:03 30.11.2015

The United Arab Emirates has said it is ready to commit ground troops against extremists in Syria and has said that Russian airstrikes in the country are attacks on a "common enemy," AFP reports, citing the official WAM news agency.

Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the UAE would "participate in any international effort demanding a ground intervention to fight terrorism".

"Regional countries must bear part of the burden" of such an intervention, he said.

15:54 30.11.2015

Russian Su-34 warplanes have flown for the first time in Syria carrying short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles as well as bombs, according to a spokesman for the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel Igor Klimov.

The aircraft had been equipped with the air-to-air missiles for "defense," Klimov said.

He added that the missiles were equipped with homing devices and were capable of hitting targets at up to 60 kilometers.

15:35 30.11.2015

Komsomolskaya Pravda's Dmitry Smirmov shared this photo of Putin and Obama shaking hands after their meeting today on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit.

15:32 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."

15:19 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."

15:15 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.

15:02 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.

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