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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).

11:43 7.12.2015

The U.S.-led coalition has told AFP that there is "no evidence" its planes hit a Syrian army base in Deir Ezzor.

The only coaltion strikes on Sunday were 55 kilometers away, the coalition told AFP.

Syria has accused the U.S.-led coalition of carrying out the strikes on Sunday that it says killed four of its soldiers.

Deir Ezzor is mostly held by the IS group.

11:39 7.12.2015

Russia Reportedly Conducts Air Strikes On Syria-Lebanon Border

Lebanon's state National News Agency reports this morning that the sound of shells heard this morning were the result of air strikes by Russian jets on the Lebanon-Syria border.

The strikes hit around Jarrod Arsal in the Anti-Lebanon mountains, a mountain range that forms most of the border between Syria and Lebanon.

Lebanon's NOW media reports that Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said on December 4 that the area around Arsal was "occupied" by militants including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al-Nusra Front and others.

11:25 7.12.2015

California Shooter Malik Attended Religious School In Pakistan, Intelligence Officials Say

Pakistani intelligence officials say California shooter Tashfeen Malik attended a religious school while living in Pakistan, where she studied pharmacy in the central city of Multan, AP is reporting.

The officials say the school is the Al-Huda International Seminary, a women's only madrasah with branches across Pakistan and in the United States and Canada. The school has no known links to extremists, AP say.

Malik and her husband Syed Farook shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino last week.

Malik is believed to have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook post made around the time of the attack.

10:57 7.12.2015

Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter IS, tweets this denial of Syrian claims that the U.S.-led coalition struck a Syrian army base in Deir Ezzor.

10:54 7.12.2015

Agency: Nearly All Russian Tourists Brought Home From Turkey

Russia's Federal Tourism Agency, Rosturizm, has completed a program for bringing home Russian tourists from Turkey, TASS reports this morning.

Russia announced that it was banning the sale of package tours and charter flights to Turkey and bringing Russian tourists in Turkey home following the November 24 downing by Turkish F-16s of a Russian Su-24 jet near the Syrian border.

Over 9,000 tourists who had gone to Turkey on package tours have been brought home, a spokeswoman for Rosturizm said.

Only around six to 10 tourists remain in Turkey and they will be returned home via scheduled flights by December 26, the spokeswoman added.

10:23 7.12.2015

U.S. Coalition Denies It Hit Syrian Army Base

This just in from AFP -- the U.S.-led coalition is denying that it hit a Syrian army base.

10:21 7.12.2015

Turkish FM: Air Strikes Alone Won't Remove IS From Syria

Air strikes alone will not be enough to dislodge IS in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told his country's Kanal 24 television this morning.

Cavusoglu said that an effective ground force is needed to support Syria's moderate opposition, Reuters reports.

10:18 7.12.2015

Syria's Foreign Ministry has written letters to the United Nations secretary-general and the chairman of the UN Security Council condemning the strike by the U.S.-led coalition against a Syrian army post in Deir Ezzor, state media is reporting.

The letters "called on the Security Council to immediately take the urgent measures to prevent such aggressions from occurring again, adding that the aggression on the military post hinders the efforts aiming to fight terrorism and reiterates that the U.S.- led coalition lacks seriousness and credibility in the fight against terrorism," Syrian state news agency SANA reports.

10:11 7.12.2015

Obama Vows To Destroy IS

U.S. President Obama has vowed that the United States will destroy the IS group and hunt down its supporters at home or abroad, AFP reports this morning.

Obama's rare speech came after IS claimed on December 5 that a married couple who killed 14 people in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California were its followers.

"After so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure," Obama said, according to AFP.

"The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy [IS] and any other organization that tries to harm us...Our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary," Obama added.

WATCH: U.S. President Barack Obama Says Islamic State Will Be Defeated

Obama: No Ground War With IS Militants
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10:06 7.12.2015

From our news desk:

NATO Chief Says Alliance Won't Send Ground Troops Into Syria

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says NATO has ruled out sending ground troops to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

In an interview published by Switzerland’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on December 7, Stoltenberg said NATO ground forces accompanying U.S.-led coalition air strikes was "not on the agenda of the coalition and the NATO allies."

Stoltenberg said: "The United States has a limited number of special forces," but strengthening local forces is "the only option."

Stoltenberg also said NATO would help improve Turkey's air defenses after it shot down a Russian bomber that crossed into Turkish airspace.

Noting a "significant buildup of the Russian military presence from the far north to the Mediterranean," Stoltenberg said it is important there to "avoid similar incidents such as in Turkey."

President Barack Obama said his strategy to fight IS does not include U.S. ground combat troops in Syria and Iraq.

But the Pentagon has announced small deployments of elite special forces.

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