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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).

10:22 8.1.2016

AFP have shared this graphic showing the locations and casualty figures from the two suicide bombings yesterday in Libya that killed more than 56 people.

IS has claimed responsibility for the attack at Ras Lanuf in Libya's oil crescent -- which the militant group has attacked several times this week -- but it is still unknown who was behind the deadlier attack at Zliten.

10:19 8.1.2016

No group has yet claimed responsibility for yesterday's suicide attack on Zliten that killed over 50 people.

10:09 8.1.2016

Special-forces raids on an Islamic State stronghold in northern Iraq are under way before a planned offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq's parliamentary speaker Salim al-Jabouri told Reuters on January 7.

10:09 8.1.2016

The IS group has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing yesterday (Janauary 7) in Ras Lanuf, an oil port in Libya's oil crescent. AFP is reporting this morning.

IS's Libyan affiliate released a statement saying that the attack east of the IS-held coastal town of Sirte, was carried out by a foreign fighter using an explosives-packed car.

No group has yet taken responsibility for a second suicide bombing on January 7 in Zliten, west of Tripoli, which killed over 50 people including a baby.

20:51 6.1.2016

This concludes our live blogging on the Islamic State group for January 6. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.

18:46 6.1.2016

18:17 6.1.2016

The IS group has built a research center devoted to launching attacks in the West using driverless cars and rehabilitated anti-aircraft missiles, new footage from inside the terror group reveals, The Guardian reports citing footage obtained by Sky News.

18:16 6.1.2016

Sky News says that it has been shown "the strongest evidence yet" that the British-accented masked militant in the latest IS propaganda video is British terror suspect Siddhartha Dhar a.k.a. Abu Rumaysah.

Sky says that voice analysis of the video has revealed "distinctive features" that support claims the militant is Dhar.

Dr Frederika Holmes, who has more than 25 years' experience as an independent consultant in forensic and phonetic analysis of speech and language samples, said: "There was considerable overlap in accent features across the two samples, and both samples could be plausibly within the range of a single speaker."

17:30 6.1.2016

Syrian government and rebel fire has killed around 20 civilians and wounded dozens more in Damascus and the nearby rebel-held East Ghouta region, state news agency SANA and an activist group report.

SANA is reporting that eight people were killed and 25 injured in mortar attacks by the Jaish al-Islam faction who fired on residential neighborhoods in Damascus from East Ghouta.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that the attack on Damascus followed government shelling on Douma in East Ghouta in which five civilians were killed. Seven more were reported dead in air strikes on two other East Ghouta towns.

17:17 6.1.2016

As the International Committee of the Red Cross warn of dire conditions in Syrian towns near Damascus besieged by pro-government forces, Syria Direct have spoken to civilians living in the rebel-controlled town of Azaz in northern Syria, who are trying to cope amid freezing temperatures, snow and rain in a town where diesel and electricity prices are skyrocketing.

Abu Hussein and his family live in a cement house, and as such, are better off than many of the 57,000 residents of Azaz.

"There are people living in tents--how can they take care of themselves?" asks Abu Hussein.

"In this despicable situation, no one knows what to do," Abu Hussein said.

"I swear to God, I never imagined in my life that people would die from the cold."

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