Austrian authorities say two teenage Syrian brothers have been arrested at a refugee center in Graz on suspicion of involvement with terrorist organizations, AP reports.
One of the brothers allegedly fought for the IS group in Syria and the second allegedly belonged to Ahrar al-Sham, an ultraconservative Islamist Syrian rebel group.
'Russia's Interests Coincide With Those Of The Taliban' -- Foreign Ministry
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that the interests of the Taliban in Afghanistan coincide with those of Russia, Interfax reports.
"The interests of the Taliban, without incentives, objectively coincide with ours," Zamir Kabulov, Vladimir Putin's special representative for Afghanistan and a foreign ministry department head.
"I already spoke earlier about the presence of channels of communication between ourselves and the Taliban for exchanging information," Kabulov added.
Kabulov made his comments in response to a question about whether the Taliban could be used as a partner in the fight against the IS group and whether Moscow was in contact with them on that issue.
Sohaib Alrawi, the governor of Iraq's western province of Anbar, has tweeted about the battle to retake provincial capital Ramadi from the IS group (Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the IS group).
Alrawi also praised the U.S.-led coalition for its role in training Iraqi tribal fighters and providing close air cover for the operation in Ramadi.
Britain has provided close air support to Iraqi forces during the push to remove IS militants from the center of Ramadi, the UK Department of Defense says.
With Iraqi troops conducting ground assaults on Daesh positions in Ramadi on 22 December, two pairs of RAF Tornados and a Reaper, provided the Iraqis with continuous close air support alongside other coalition aircraft. When the Daesh fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at Iraqi soldiers tending to wounded personnel, the Tornados intervened with a very accurate Paveway strike. The Reaper, meanwhile, assisted other coalition aircraft in an attack that destroyed an anti-aircraft gun.
Russia's air force carried out 302 sorties in Syria between December 18 and 23, hitting 1,093 IS targets, Russia's Defense Ministry has said.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konanshenkov said that Russian strikes had destroyed a training camp in Idlib where there were "a large number of instructors from countries neighboring Syria."
"Information about that camp, where among the terrorists who had come from Turkey were a significant number of citizens of CIS countries, was obtained from the patriotic Syrian opposition," Konanshenkov said.
Russia's Defense Ministry has commented on the report released today by Amnesty International which says Russian air strikes have caused civilian casualties.
The Defense Ministry said the report was selective and did not mention the use of cluster bombs by Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine, according to RIA Novosti.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov called on Amnesty to reveal the sources of its information regarding Russian air strikes in Syria.
Amnesty International Report 'Cliches & Fakes' - Russian Defense Ministry
TASS has more on the Russian Defense Ministry's response to the Amnesty International report that says Russian air strikes caused civilian casualties in Syria.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the report consists of "fakes and cliches."
"We familiarized ourselves with the report -- again nothing concrete and nothing new has been published. The same cliches and fakes that we have repeatedly denounced before. The report uses the same phrases like "presumed Russian air strikes" and "possible violations of international law" and so on. That is, total assumptions without any kind of proof," Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov said that Russia was not using cluster bombs in Syria.
Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-IS operations in Syria, has tweeted this before-and-after image of an IS oil depot near IS's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, which was destroyed in U.S.-led air strikes.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Russia made "disingenuous propaganda shows" with the black box flight recorder recovered from the downed Su-24 jet.
Turkey shot down the Russian jet near the Syrian border on November 24.
"It was stated that the black box was opened, but the information was unreadable due to the destruction," Erdogan said, according to the Daily Sabah.
"At a time when all the world has accepted Turkey's rightfulness, these disingenuous propaganda shows do not have any meaning beyond further embarrassing those who seek help from them."
Three IS suicide attacks killed 11 pro- government fighters in Syria in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor today, according to Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
IS controls about half of Deir al-Zor city. Abdel-Rahman said that the suicide attacks allowed IS to advance slightly in the city but Russian and Syrian war planes are striking their positions.
However, state news agency SANA is reporting that government forces managed to push back IS militants and that the suicide car bombs had exploded before they reached military posts in the al-Sinaa neighborhood of Deir al-Zor.