Reports that Syrian army reaches outskirts of besieged Shi'ite towns
There are reports that the Syrian army has reached the outskirts of two Shi'ite towns, Nubl and Zahra, that have been under siege by Sunni rebels for three and a half years.
Al Manar, a TV station owned by the Lebanese Hizbullah group has said that the Syrian army and its allies broke the rebel siege around the two towns. According to Al Manar, the breakthrough happened after the Syrian army opened a route from towns seized from rebels in a major offensive in northern Aleppo.
Syrian state news agency SANA is also reporting that the army, "in cooperation with groups of popular committees" had broken the siege on the two villages.
Slovenia offers military instructors, equipment to fight IS
Slovenia is to offer military equipment, weapons and as many as 15 military instructors to help in the fight against the IS group, Defense Minister Andreja Katic has said.
The Slovenian military instructors would train Kurdish forces in Erbil in Iraq, probably in the second half of 2016, Katic said. The STA news agency said that in the first phase, six instructors would be deployed to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Katic's comments confirmed a media report on Feb. 2 that said Slovenia was set to upgrade its involvement in the international campaign against IS by offering 15 instructors.
Local media reported that Katic said there would be no extra costs to the ministry and that the military equipment and weapons were surplus items.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec told the same news conference that IS represented a threat and that Slovenian military instructors sent to Iraqi Kurdistan would not participate in military action.
Recapturing Raqqa a top priority: coalition
U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against IS, says that recapturing the IS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria is a priority.
U.S. sends more F-16s to Baghdad
The United States Embassy in Baghdad has announced on its Facebook page that the United States has sent additional F-16 bombers to Iraq.
These will be used in the fight against the IS group.
Syrian rebels backed by U.S.-led air strikes recaptured IS village: coalition
The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the IS group, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, says that Syrian opposition forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes retook the IS-held village of Al-Bali in Syria on Jan. 30.
Warren is giving a briefing to update on the progress of the coalition in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition against IS tweets that it destroyed 300 IS targets between Jan. 26- Feb. 1:
Iraq building security wall around Baghdad to prevent IS attacks
Iraqi security forces are building a concrete security wall around Baghdad in an attempt to prevent attacks by the IS group, a military statement has said, Reuters reports.
Germany investigates Syrian grad student suspected of making IS video
Prosecutors in Frankfurt, Germany are investigating a 35-year-old Syrian doctorate student suspected of involvement in an IS propaganda video.
The unnamed man is believed to have explained his reasons for supporting IS in a nine-minute video in Arabic posted on the internet on Jan. 7.
The man is also suspected of posting a symbol resembling the IS flag on his personal page on a social media site.
Via Twitter, Russia's Foreign Ministry drives home FM Lavrov's insistence that Russian air strikes will not stop until all "terrorists" are defeated.
Arab fighters, Kurdish forces retake northern Iraq village from IS
Sunni Arab fighters backed by Kurdish forces and U.S.-led air strikes have retaken the village of Kudila in the Makhmour district of northern Iraq today from the IS group, Reuters reports, calling it an "example of effective military cooperation on the ground" against IS.