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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).

14:27 8.1.2016

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.

13:15 8.1.2016

IS has posted photos from the Libyan town of Bin Jawad, captured earlier this week.

13:12 8.1.2016

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.

13:08 8.1.2016

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

13:00 8.1.2016

IS has also claimed responsibility this morning for murdering a Christian convert in Bangladesh, Reuters is reporting, citing the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors militant activity.

IS said it killed the man on January 7 in Jhenaidah about 161 km west of the capital Dhaka, because he had converted to Christianity from Islam.

12:58 8.1.2016

More reports are emerging about IS's claim this morning that an attack on a tourist bus in Giza yesterday was carried out by its affiliate in Sinai.

IS said that its members carried out the attack on Israeli tourists in response to a call by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to target Jews "everywhere."

12:54 8.1.2016

Photos of the checkpoint at Ras Lanuf in Libya's oil crescent that were targeted by an IS suicide car bomb on January 7.

12:36 8.1.2016

Turkey's President Erdogan has accused Russia of not fighting the IS group in Syria, saying that Syrian Turkomans have claimed Russia is bombing their villages.

Turkey has made similar accusations previously.

Relations between Russia and Turkey chilled since Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 jet near the Syrian border in November.

12:31 8.1.2016

The IS group's affiliate in Sinai appears to have taken responsibility for an attack on a tourist bus yesterday in Egypt's Giza.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said that no one was hurt in the attack but an eye witness said that the attack was more organized than the ministry had described.

The witness, Jaber Jabarin, an Arab Israeli, said that the attackers fired flares, fired at the bus, then fired birdshot at a hotel and tried to throw Molotov cocktails at the bus. The attackers then fired at the hotel with live bullets, Jabarin claimed.

12:13 8.1.2016

The European Union has welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's decision to allow humanitarian access to the town of Madaya, and called for a halt to all attacks on civilians in the conflict.

"The decision of the Syrian regime to allow humanitarian access in Madaya is a first step in the right direction," Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, and the bloc's Commissioner for Humanitarian aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides, said in a joint statement today, Reuters reports.

According to Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Syrian government forces have imposed a siege in Madaya, near the border with Lebanon, since July. Around 20,000 residents of the town are facing "life-threatening deprivation" and 23 patients in an MSF-supported health center have died of starvation since January 1 including six babies under one year old.

MSF operations director Brice de le Vingne said the situation was "now catastrophic" and a "clear example of the consequences of using siege as a military strategy."

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