The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warns of the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria as the crisis rages on.
The economy has collapsed, essential infrastructure like water and power networks are hanging by a thread, and on top of that a very cold winter is bearing down
Paris Prosecutor Francois Mollins has cast doubt on the identity of a man shot dead yesterday by police in Paris.
"I am not at all sure the identity he gave was real," Molins told France Inter radio earlier today, Reuters is reporting.
Authorities are trying to establish whether the man, shot dead as he tried to enter a police station wielding a meat cleaver and wearing a fake suicide vest, was acting alone or with support.
The incident happened on the first anniversary of the deadly attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.
IS has posted photos from the Libyan town of Bin Jawad, captured earlier this week.
The U.S.-led coalition launched 23 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and three in Syria on January 7, the task force leading the operation said in a statement.
Suspected U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have killed 11 civilians, mostly children, in a militant-held village in northern Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.
"Eight children and three women were killed in strikes by the international coalition on Hazima, a village north of Raqqa city" Thursday, said SOHR head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the recent attack by IS militants on Turkish troops stationed in Iraq's Bashiqa camp justifies Turkey's decision to not withdraw completely from the region, the Anadolu Agency reports.
"I have been told that some 18 Daesh terrorists who tried to sneak into the Bashiqa camp were neutralized," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday, confirming that there were no casualties among the Turkish troops.
"Of course this [attack] only proves just how appropriate was the step taken regarding the camp," he said, referring to Turkey's decision to send reinforcement units to the camp in early December.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, has arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian officials in preparation for peace negotiations between President Bashar al-Assad's government and its opponents later this month in Geneva.
Syrian rebel groups including the powerful Islam Army have said that they are facing international pressure to make concessions that would only service to prolong the country's conflict.
The groups said in a statement that an opposition council established to oversee negotiations with the Syrian government was being pushed to "offer concessions that will prolong the suffering of our people and the spilling of their blood."
New statistics released by the United States Air Force suggest the air war against the IS group is expanding, the Washington Post reports.
For two months in a row -- November and December -- the service dropped over 3,000 munitions. Prior to that the number of munitions dropped has been under 3,000 per month.
Iraq analyst @Alex_de_M has geolocated the site of yesterday's suicide truck bombing in a police facility in Zlitan, Libya, that killed over 60 people.