Sky News Arabia tweeted this image of burning oil storage tankers at Ras Lanuf in Libya's oil crescent.
The fires were started in an attack by IS militants yesterday.
Electrical Transmission Towers Damaged In Ras Lanuf Fire
The fires at the Ras Lanuf oil terminal started during an attack yesterday by IS militants have damaged electrical transmission towers in the area, Libya's Channel is reporting.
Firefighters Battle Libya Oil Terminal Blaze After IS Attack
Firefighters are battling a blaze at the Ras Lanuf oil terminal for the second day running after the facility came under attack from the IS group on January 21.
"Four storage tanks together containing around two million barrels of crude oil are on fire," said a security official.
One of the four tanks is beyond control and security officials expect it to collapse any moment, the official added.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk Insists On Russian Church's Right To Approve Russian Operation In Syria
Perhaps one of the strangest headlines on the Syrian civil war and the fight against the IS group to appear today comes via Interfax Religion, which reports that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department For External Church Relations -- one Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk -- has insisted on the Church's right to approve Russia's military actions in Syria. Even though the Church as recognized war as "evil."
"Unfortunately, the political process has so far not eased the life of innocent people and they need military protection. Because when the Russian Federation made an executive decision to use the armed forces to protect the people of Syria from terrorists' arbitrariness, the Russian Church, like other traditional religious associations of our country, supported that decision," the metropolitan said in an interview with the Serb newspaper Vechernie Vedomosti, a translation of which was posted on the website of DECR.
Saudi-Backed Syrian Opposition Rule Out Even Indirect Talks Unless Air Raids Stop
The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition has ruled out even indirect talks with Damascus unless there Russian air strikes end, Reuters report.
The position contradicts U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's insistence that talks will go ahead next week.
The Chief of Russia's General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, has made a number of comments to the Rossiya-24 TV channel regarding the Russian military operation in Syria.
Here are some of the main points and claims made by Gerasimov as reported by RIA Novosti (like other Russian officials, Gerasimov refers only to the IS group here -- Russia has consistently referred to the Syrian armed opposition as "IS"):
- Thanks to Russian air support, the Syrian Army has been able to carry out offensives against "terrorists" in 10 of 15 areas and is preparing for operations on another three fronts.
- "The Syrian Army, which has spent four years defending against illegal armed groups, has mostly fought under retreat. Literally two weeks after the start of our air operations, there emerged some trends towards offensive attacks in several fronts. This was at the end of October."
- IS militants in Syria are being trained by professionals, including former Iraqi army officers.
- "IS is not that group that is presented as bearded guys in civilian clothes, which is not organized -- it's not like that at all. In actual fact these are organized groups, they all underwent training... In their ranks there are officers who served in the Iraqi army, they are well-trained."
- "Since September 30 until now, [the Russian air force in Syria] have carried out over 6,000 sorties against various (terrorist) targets."
- "The strategic initiative in most fronts [in Syria] is now in the hands of the government forces. They are actively carrying out combat operations, sooner or later the IS resistance will be broken."
- "I must say that in general in these months the Syrian army has become something else. It has a desire to advance, if you like, it has confidence in its own forces."
Militants In Syria Have Anti-Aircraft Capabilities: Russian Defense Ministry
Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has claimed that militants in Syria have weapons capable of shooting down aircraft at 4,000 meters including Syrian transport aircraft providing humanitarian aid to besieged areas.
Konashenkov said that militants -- though he did not say from which group -- had Zu-23 anti-aircraft mounts. The ZU-23 or ZU-23-2 is a Soviet towed 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon.
"Indeed, the militants have the means, like the ZU-23 and others, that allow them to [attack targets] at 4,000 m -- such as a large aircraft, like the Il-76 transport aircraft of the Syrian air force," Konashenko was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
A British mother on trial for allegedly taking her child to IS-controlled Syria has told a court in the UK that she dressed her son up in IS clothing because he "loved wearing hats."
Tareena Shakil, 26, who traveled to IS stronghold Raqqa in Syria in October 2014, admitted she had put a black balaclava with an IS symbol on her son.
The photo was taken in a house in Raqqa where she lived with other women, Shakil said.
Shakil said that she had told her family she was happy in Raqqa because she didn't know if she would be able to escape.
"So I had to go from day to day, it was a way of coping," Shakil said.
Most Indonesians Who Are Aware Of IS Reject The Group: Survey
A survey carried out in Indonesia claims to have found that over 62 percent of those surveyed had heard of the IS group, and of those, 95 percent "rejected the presence of IS in Indonesia."
Only 0.3 percent of respondents said they would like to see the IS group established in Indonesia.
U.S.-Led Coalition Needs To Retake Mosul, Raqqa: Carter
The U.S.-led coalition against the IS group needs to take back the cities of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, and will use "boots on the ground" as part of its strategy, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said.
"We need to destroy them in those two places, and I'd like to get on with that as soon as possible," Carter, speaking from Davos, Switzerland, said in an interview on CNBC.