Turkey: Kurdish YPG militia is 'Russia's instrument' in Syria
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that the Kurdish YPG militia -- which Turkey shelled over the weekend -- is "Russia's instrument" in Syria.
IS claims alleged suicide car bombing in Daghestan
The IS group has issued a statement -- in Arabic, not Russian -- claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing on a traffic police post in the North Caucasian republic of Daghestan this morning.
The security forces have said that the attack on a police post in Dzhemikent was carried out by a suicide bomber whose remains were found at the scene and had been organized by members of the "southern" group of militants, according to the Caucasian Knot.
The attack occurred amid increasing pressure from the government on Salafist communities, the Caucasian Knot reported.
Video footage of the attack has been circulating on Twitter and other social media including Telegram.
Russian Deputy FM explains why Moscow began its air campaign in Syria (spoiler: it's America's fault)
Russia began its air campaign in Syria because it could no longer deal with the inaction of the U.S.-led coalition against the IS group, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has explained.
"We went into Syria, including with the use of force from the air, because we considered it impossible to deal with the quasi-action, and actually the inaction, of the U.S.-led so-called anti-IS coalition, which did not do its job," Ryabkov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Rybakov added that for Russia this was "a direct, immediate threat and our colleagues in BRICS have treated our use of force, our air operation, with understanding."
MSF says Idlib hospital destroyed in air strikes
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said that a hospital it supported in Syria's Idlib province was destroyed this morning in air strikes.
The hospital was in the town of Marat al-Numan.
Women's hospital in Syria's Azaz reportedly hit by missile
A women's hospital in the town of Azaz in northern Syria, close to the border with Turkey, has been hit by a missile, says Jenan Moussa of the pro-opposition Al-Aan news. It's not clear if the missile was fired by Syrian government or Russian air strikes.
Turkey denies that its soldiers entered Syria
Turkey's Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz this morning has denied reports that its soldiers have entered Syria, saying that it has no such plans, the state-run Anadolu Agency says.
Damascus complained that Turkish soldiers were among around 100 gunmen who entered Syria on Feb. 13 with 12 pick up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns in an operation to supply militants fighting the Syrian government.
The Syrian government wrote letters of complaint to the UN about the incident and also asked the UN to take action against Turkish shelling of Syrian Kurdish forces in Aleppo province in northern Syria. The Kurdish YPG militia has been capturing areas from rebels who are also fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Yazidi woman describes how IS slaughtered her family
A Yazidi woman who is in the UK as part of a campaign to united the world against the IS group, has described how the extremists slaughtered her family in Iraq and held her as a sex slave for three months.
Nadia Murad, 21, was orphaned when IS militants killed six of her brothers and her mother.
The Telegraph quotes these heartrending words by Murad:
"About 5,800 Yazidi women and children were captured by the so-called Islamic State. They have killed many people in Iraq and Syria and displaced millions.
"For us, the Yazidis, they killed the men and took the women and children.
"They were committing all kinds; murder, rape and displacing people by force in the name of Islam.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Syrian crisis and Islamic State for Friday, February 12. Check back here on Monday for more of our continuing coverage.
Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers deploy at base near Mosul
Over the past 24 hours, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have amassed at a northern base to prepare for operations to retake the city of Mosul from IS militants, officers have said.
AFP reports:
AFP correspondents at the base in Makhmur, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Mosul, saw 700 soldiers from the 15th division arrive late Thursday.
More soldiers were deployed there on Friday, said an officer who is part of the security command tasked with retaking Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, from IS.
Unknown DNA found on explosive vest linked to Paris attacks
Unidentified DNA has been found on two explosives belts linked to those involved in the November 13 attacks in Paris, the Paris prosecutor's office has said, AP reports.
A street cleaner found one explosives belt in the Paris suburb of Montrouge, near where fugitive attacker Salah Abdelslam's cellphone was found, raising suspicions that Abdeslam -- who remains at large -- aborted a suicide attack.