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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).

13:26 26.11.2015

Russia's state-owned RIA Novosti news agency says that the advanced S-400 antiaircraft system has been deployed at a Russian military base in Syria.

Russia announced it would deploy the advanced surface-to-air missile system after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane along the Turkey-Syria border on November 24.

The system has reportedly been deployed in Syria's Lakatia Province, some 50 kilometers from the border with Turkey. It is capable of accurately hitting targets up to 400 kilometers away.

Earlier on November 26, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said the S-400 deployment "will further complicate an already difficult situation in the skies over Syria."

Spokesman William Stevens told Interfax the S-400s "do nothing to further the fight against ISIL, as they have no air force," using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.

Stevens added that Washington expected Russia to abide by a bilateral memorandum of understanding on flight safety in the zone of military operations. (AP, Interfax, RIA Novosti, Gazeta.ru)

13:22 26.11.2015

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that he has given his government two days to come up with a packet of punitive measures against Turkey.

Medvedev said the shooting down of the Russian plane was "definitely an act of aggression" and that it was necessary to take "economic measures" in addition to the diplomatic and military responses that have already been adopted.

He said Russia would suspend ongoing talks on preferential trade status for Turkey and would consider restricting Turkish labor migrants in Russia. (TASS, Interfax)

12:52 26.11.2015

Iraq's Vice President Nuri al-Maliki has lashed out at Turkish President Erdogan after Turkey's downing of a Russian war plane earlier this week.

Al-Maliki accused Erdogan of pushing the world towards a global conflict.

"Erdogan claims that a Russian aircraft entered Turkey's airspace for a few seconds, forgetting that its own planes violate Iraqi and Syrian airspace every day...Erdogan's double standards and aggressive policies are threatening a new world war," al-Maliki said in a statement, AFP is reporting.

12:48 26.11.2015

AFP tweets this comment from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

12:39 26.11.2015

Ahead of today's talks between French President Hollande and his Russian counterpart Putin in Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry reports that French Ambassador to Russia Jean-Maurice Ripert has met with Deputy Foreign Minister for Anti-Terrorism Matters Oleg Syromolotov in Moscow to discuss "Russian-French cooperation in countering terrorist threats in the context of the war against IS and combating terror financing."

12:37 26.11.2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he thinks Turkey's leadership is "deliberately" pushing bilateral relations to a dead end.

Speaking in Moscow on November 26, Putin said Moscow was waiting for an apology and an offer of compensation from Turkey after a Turkish Air Force jet shot down a Russian warplane along the Turkey-Syria border on November 24. A Russian pilot died in the incident.

Putin added that he expected Ankara to "punish the criminals for this crime."

The Russian president also said that the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group was a result of "the passivity of some countries and often [their] direct complicity in terrorism."

He said that he hoped a "real, broad international coalition" will be formed into a "coordinated, powerful force" that will "support the actions of the Russian military conducting successful operations against terrorist groups and structures in Syria." (TASS, Interfax, Reuters)

12:29 26.11.2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin says there has as yet been "no clear apology" from Turkey over the downing of a Russian Su-24 jet on November 24.

"What happened two days ago in the skies over Syria goes against reason and international law. The plane was downed in Syrian territory. Thus far we did not hear either a clear apology from the highest political echelons in Syria, or proposals for reparations or damages or promises to punish the perpatrators for committing a crime," Putin was quoted as saying by the pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti.

12:23 26.11.2015

British Prime Minister David Cameron has accused Russia of targeting "moderate opposition" forces in Syria, though Moscow "sees the danger" of IS.

12:09 26.11.2015

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters he is not aware of measures to impose sanctions against Turkey, in the wake of an announcement this morning that Russia will impose controls over Turkish imports.

The controls did not amount to an embargo on Turkish products, Peskov said.

However, Peskov did say that the controls were necessary in the light of "increasing dangers of various manifestations of extremism."

"Naturally,more stringent measures of control will be taken. This is completely natural, all the more so in conditions of the unpredictable actions in the case of the Turkish republic," Peskov added.

Peskov then stated the obvious: that Russia-Turkey relations have suffered a serious blow after the downing of the Su-24 jet on November 24.

"Of course, fixing this quite devastating damage that has been caused to bilateral relations is very difficult, very hard. It is too serious an event with very serious, unavoidable consequences," Putin's spokesman said.

12:01 26.11.2015

More on British Prime Minister David Cameron's case for Britain extending air strikes against IS in Syria.

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