The World Health Organization has asked the Syrian government for permission to send mobile clinics and medical teams to the besieged town of Madaya to assess the extent of malnutrition and evacuate the worst cases, its representative said on Tuesday, Reuters is reporting.
WHO's Damascus representative Elizabeth Roth told Reuters that she is "really alarmed" and that WHO needs to do a "door-to-door assessment" in the town.
Unconfirmed reports of 10 dead in Istanbul.
The Wall Street Journal's Thomas Grove says the blast in Istanbul was likely a suicide bomber.
Casualties have been reported in an explosion in central Istanbul.
From our news desk:
Casualties Reported In Central Istanbul Blast
Reports from Turkey say an explosion has rocked the center of Istanbul, causing some casualties.
The explosion occurred on January 12 in Sultanahmet Square, a major tourist attraction.
Police sealed off the square after the blast.
The Sultanahmet neighborhood is Istanbul's main sightseeing area and includes the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque.
The blast in Turkey's largest city comes after a series of deadly attacks across the country in past months.
Two suicide bombs in the capital, Ankara, in October killed more than 100 people. Prosecutors said that attack was carried out by Islamic State militants.
Turkey is also waging an assault on the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has staged deadly attacks against members of the security forces in the country's southeast.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed this morning to continue the fight against the IS group, as he toured a bombed shopping mall in eastern Baghdad, the site of a suicide attack yesterday.
IS militants claimed responsibility for the attack in the New Baghdad neighborhood, which killed 18 people.
Abadi said the attack was a "desperate attempt" by IS in the wake of its loss of Ramadi.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has perhaps hinted at things to come, saying that Russia could grant asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but noting that it was too soon to say whether Russia would have to do so.
Interestingly, Putin also criticized Assad, saying he had done a lot wrong since the start of the conflict.
From our news desk:
Putin Says Russia Could Grant Syrian Leader Assad Asylum
Russia could give asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he has to leave his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on January 12.
"It was surely more difficult to grant [U.S. national security contractor Edward] Snowden asylum in Russia than it would be in the case of Assad," Putin told the German tabloid Bild, referring to the American leaker of classified U.S. documents who was given asylum in Russia in 2013.
Putin said it was too early to say whether Russia would have to give shelter to Assad as part of a transition to a new government for Syria under the road map to a peace deal approved by most parties in the Syrian conflict last year.
"First, the Syrian population has to be able to vote, and then we will see if Assad would have to leave his country if he loses the election," Putin said.
Putin admitted that he thinks Assad has "done much wrong over the course of this conflict."
But he added: "the conflict would never have become so big if it had not been fueled by outside of Syria -- with weapons, money and fighters."
Putin reiterated Russia's position that it is supporting Assad, a longtime ally, in an effort to prevent Syria from becoming an ungovernable failed state.
"We do not want Syria to end like Iraq or Libya," Putin said. "Look at Egypt: one has to praise President Sisi for taking over the responsibility and power in an emergency situation, in order to stabilize the country."
Putin said the rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran that broke open last week has exposed a Shi'ite-Sunni Muslim sectarian conflict that exists throughout the Middle East, and will make it more difficult to achieve peace in Syria.
"As for whether this will lead to a major regional clash, I do not know. I would rather not talk or even think in these terms," he said.
The UN's humanitarian chief, Stephen O'Brien, told reporters yesterday that reports of people starving to death in Madaya were "wholly credible."
But Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari has complained that much of what is being said about Madaya is fabricated for political reasons.
Syria's state news agency SANA is running Ja'afari's comments this morning, focussing on his accusations that humanitarian aid sent to areas under rebel control is being stolen by "terrorists" -- in other words, rebels -- who are also using civilians in those areas as "human shields."
Ja'afari said that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were working to undermine a political solution to the crisis in Syria.
Russia's TASS news agency picked up on Ja'afari's comments this morning -- notably, TASS has run a story in English, designed to reach international readers.
TASS focusses on Ja'afari's accusations that the reports of starvation in Madaya are "set to undermine the peace talks in Geneva on January 25" and are attempts to "demonize" the Assad government.
"The fact raises eyebrows that every time when a step forward is made towards political settlement in Syria, information about certain incidents is fabricated to belie the Syrian government and to negatively affect the political process," Ja'afari told reporters.
The Syrian diplomat said the gunmen loot some aid and then sell the goods to the citizens at an inflated price. "They store the humanitarian aid at their warehouses and use it as a tool of political struggle," he said.
That concludes our live-blogging of the crisis surrounding Islamic State for Monday, January 11, 2016. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.