The situation in three Syrian villages besieged by Syrian government and allied Hizballah forces is "extremely dire," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned, the BBC is reporting.
In Madaya near Damascus, activists say that civilians have died because of a lack of food and medicines. An activist in Madaya told the BBC that people are "eating stuff off the ground. They're eating cats and dogs."
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI)'s Critical Threats update today has this to say on IS's attacks on Libya's oil crescent:
The Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) Wilayat Barqa may be close to success in its campaign to seize Libyan oil infrastructure. The group advanced eastward from its base in Sirte, seizing Bin Jawad and launching suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks on Libya’s two largest oil export ports, al Sidra and Ras Lanuf. If ISIS Wilayat Barqa can effectively consolidate its territorial gains, it will likely continue to advance eastward and seek control of major oil fields.
But is IS in Libya likely to succeed in seizing control of Sidra and Ras Lanuf?
While the clashes on January 4 and 5 certainly caused significant damage -- a total of seven oil tanks are ablaze as a result of the assault by IS -- the extremists did not manage to overrun Sidra and were repelled by the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), despite launching two suicide car bombs.
The PFG said today that IS had retreated and were trying to regroup for another attack, but claimed that if (more likely when) this happened it would not be as strong.
In the Iraqi city of Ramadi, recently retaken from the IS group, Sunni tribal fighters and local police will take over security duties from the Iraqi army and counter terrorism service, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition says.
The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against IS says that around 2,500 IS militants were killed in U.S.-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria in December.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren -- spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition -- has also commented on Operation Tidal Wave, the operation to target IS-controlled oil installations, which the group is using as a source of funding.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, has also commented in his press briefing today about the recent heavy clashes by IS militants near Haditha in Iraq's Anbar province.
Warren says that Iraqi Security Forces have repelled or regrouped and counterattacked against all IS advances near Haditha.
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren tweets that Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) are carrying out clearance operations to the east of Ramadi's city center and are encountering booby traps and pockets of resistance from IS militants remaining in the city.
The U.S.-led coalition is providing close air support for the operation.
More news of the aftermath of the deadly clashes between IS and Petroleum Facilities Guard fighters in Sidra -- as fears remain that IS is regrouping for another assault.
At least 20 Syrian rebel commanders -- mostly hardline Islamists -- have died in targeted killings in Syria since December, according to activists, AFP reports.
No armed group has taken responsibility for the assassinations, whose targets include seven leading officers in Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al Nusra Front. The most recent killing occurred today in Homs province: Abu Rateb al-Homsi, a local commander with the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham group was killed.
According to Thomas Pierret, a Syria specialist at the University of Edinburgh, "the regime and its allies are by far the main suspects" in the killings.
"One of the components of the counter-insurgency strategy implemented by Russia since September is the decapitation of the insurgent leadership," he added.
With help from their Russian ally, intelligence services in Damascus have been able to gather better information on senior rebel figures, Pierret said.
Back in Libya, Petroleum Facilities Guard fighters injured in clashes with IS militants near Sidra in Libya's oil crescent have been transferred to Misrata for medical treatment. The photos show them arriving in Misrata.
The Libya Observer tweeted this image earlier showing a list of 18 Petroleum Facilities Guard fighters injured in the clashes at Sidra on January 5.