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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).

20:52 4.12.2015

The latest from our news desk on the California attacks:

WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials say the woman who, along with her husband, allegedly shot and killed 14 at a holiday party in southern California had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

Federal law enforcement officials were quoted by AP and CNN on December 4 as saying that Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani native who moved to the U.S. in 2014 on a fiancee visa, had posted a statement on Facebook pledging support to the radical Islamic group.

The White House had no immediate comment on the reports and police officials in California were to hold a news briefing later in the day.

Officials say Malik and her husband, Syed Farook, used automatic weapons, handguns, and pipe bombs in the attack, which occurred at a social services agency in San Bernadino, about 100 kilometers east of Los Angeles.

At least 21 people were wounded in the incident.

The couple was killed hours later after a car chase and fierce gun battle with police.

Farook, who was born in Chicago to Pakistani parents and raised in southern California, was a 28-year-old health inspector for the county.

He had attended the holiday party and then reportedly left agitated before returning with his wife, wearing tactical vests and heavily armed.

Authorities have said that the couple fired as many as 75 rounds into the room where the holiday party was being held before fleeing and they had more than 1,600 rounds left when they were killed.

Police later found 12 pipe bombs, tools to make more explosives, and well over 4,500 rounds at the townhouse they were renting.

Officials have said that while the killings may have been inspired by the Islamic State group, there was no evidence that the radical group had directed the attack.

The shooting was the deadliest in the United States since 2012.

The AP quoted an unnamed official as saying Malik made her posts under an alias and deleted them before she and Farook went on their rampage.

Another U.S. official was quoted as saying that Malik expressed "admiration" for the extremist group's leader -- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- on Facebook under an alias account.

But the official said there was no sign that anyone affiliated with the Islamic State communicated back with her and there was no evidence of any operational instructions being conveyed to her.

Malik had been living in Saudi Arabia when she married Farook two years ago.

The shooting has sparked heated debate in the United States about the wide availability of guns and the prevalence of mass shootings as well as increased fears that people who are radicalized or supportive of Islamic State could enter the United States alongside refugees from Syria or elsewhere.

Islamic State leaders, whose fighters have seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria as part of an effort to create a theocratic state called a caliphate, have urged sympathizers worldwide to commit violence in their countries.

18:10 4.12.2015

Belgian police have posted information on their website about the two additional suspects sought in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks.

The two men used fake Belgian identity cards in the names of Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal.

Soufiane Kayal's fake ID was used to rent a house in Auvelais in Belgium. The house was raided by police on November 26.

The fake ID in the name of Samir Bouzid was used four days after the Paris attacks on November 17 at 18:00 in a Western Union branch in the Brussels region, to transfer a sum of 750 euros to Hasna Aitboulahcen, the cousin of the Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Both Aitboulahcen and Abaaoud were killed in a police raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on November 18.

Closed circuit TV images were recorded during the money transfer, and have been posted on the police website.

The two men are armed and dangerous, the police warn.

18:02 4.12.2015

Belgium Appeals For Public Help In Search For Two Paris Suspects

Belgian federal prosecutors have appealed to the public in the search for two men who traveled in a rental car with key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam to Hungary in September, Reuters reports.

Police believe that the two men may have links to the Paris attacks.

Abdeslam was in Paris at the time of the attacks. Federal prosecutors say he traveled twice to Budapest in September in a rental car.

On September 9 he was stopped at the Austria-Hungary border in a Mercedes accompanied by two men who had fake Belgian ID cards with the names Samir Bouzid and Soufiane Kayal.

Abdeslam is still on the loose. A senior European counterterrorism official told CNN late yesterday that his trail has gone cold.

17:56 4.12.2015

Russia's Defense Ministry has given a press briefing about the past week's air strikes by Russian war planes in Syria.

A ministry spokesman said that in the past week Russia has flown 431 sorties from the Hmeymim airbase in Latakia and carried out 1,458 "pinpoint strikes on terrorist objectives" in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzor and Raqqa.

All of the Russian bombers were escorted by Sukhoi Su-30SM fighters, the Ministry said.

17:41 4.12.2015

AFP's Danny Kemp has tweeted these pictures of the two new suspects the Belgian police are now hunting for in connection to the November 13 Paris attacks.

The two men used fake Belgian IDs to help suspect Salah Abdeslam travel to Hungary in September.

17:38 4.12.2015

Peter Spiegel of the Financial Times adds this on the report that the Belgian prosecutor has said two more Paris attacks suspects are being sought.

The prosecutor says that four suspects are at large.

Suspect Salah Abdeslam traveled twice to Hungary in September in a rental car and on one occasion was stopped between Hungary and Austria, traveling with two people carrying fake Belgian IDs.

17:34 4.12.2015

Journalist Michael Weiss tweets this on the Paris attacks: French and Belgian police are searching for two new suspects, the Belgian prosecutor has said.

17:31 4.12.2015

Analyst Aaron Zelin tweets this comment about the San Bernardino shootings, following news that the female attacker pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook post during the attack:

17:28 4.12.2015

German reconnaissance planes will soon arrive in Turkey's Incirlik air base to support the U.S.-led coalition's fight against the IS group, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.

17:16 4.12.2015

Russia Calls On Coalition To Share Syria Drone Intelligence

Russia's Defense Ministry says that over the past days, there has been a threefold increase in the number of unmanned aircraft (UAVs) operated by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria.

Sometimes as many as 50 UAVs have been operating at the same time, the Ministry said, according to RIA Novosti.

The information gathered by the coalition drones should be shared, because it relates to illegal oil smuggling, Defense Ministry official Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov said

"I want to draw your attention to the fact that most of the UAVs of the so-called coalition are carrying out reconnaissance above oil fields and along the Syria-Turkey border, across which most of the contraband oil trafficking is happening," Konashenkov said.

"You understand very well that our colleagues, who have conducted large scale video monitoring in these areas, could, if so desired, shared this information with the public -- what is happening on the Syria-Turkey border, in what volumes and how the terrorists are selling oil."

Russia has accused Turkey of involvement in illegal sales of IS oil, allegations that Turkey has said are slanderous.

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