Turkey denies that its soldiers entered Syria
Turkey's Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz this morning has denied reports that its soldiers have entered Syria, saying that it has no such plans, the state-run Anadolu Agency says.
Damascus complained that Turkish soldiers were among around 100 gunmen who entered Syria on Feb. 13 with 12 pick up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns in an operation to supply militants fighting the Syrian government.
The Syrian government wrote letters of complaint to the UN about the incident and also asked the UN to take action against Turkish shelling of Syrian Kurdish forces in Aleppo province in northern Syria. The Kurdish YPG militia has been capturing areas from rebels who are also fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Yazidi woman describes how IS slaughtered her family
A Yazidi woman who is in the UK as part of a campaign to united the world against the IS group, has described how the extremists slaughtered her family in Iraq and held her as a sex slave for three months.
Nadia Murad, 21, was orphaned when IS militants killed six of her brothers and her mother.
The Telegraph quotes these heartrending words by Murad:
"About 5,800 Yazidi women and children were captured by the so-called Islamic State. They have killed many people in Iraq and Syria and displaced millions.
"For us, the Yazidis, they killed the men and took the women and children.
"They were committing all kinds; murder, rape and displacing people by force in the name of Islam.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Syrian crisis and Islamic State for Friday, February 12. Check back here on Monday for more of our continuing coverage.
Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers deploy at base near Mosul
Over the past 24 hours, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have amassed at a northern base to prepare for operations to retake the city of Mosul from IS militants, officers have said.
AFP reports:
AFP correspondents at the base in Makhmur, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Mosul, saw 700 soldiers from the 15th division arrive late Thursday.
More soldiers were deployed there on Friday, said an officer who is part of the security command tasked with retaking Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, from IS.
Unknown DNA found on explosive vest linked to Paris attacks
Unidentified DNA has been found on two explosives belts linked to those involved in the November 13 attacks in Paris, the Paris prosecutor's office has said, AP reports.
A street cleaner found one explosives belt in the Paris suburb of Montrouge, near where fugitive attacker Salah Abdelslam's cellphone was found, raising suspicions that Abdeslam -- who remains at large -- aborted a suicide attack.
'It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part' of Syria: Assad
AFP have published more extracts from its exclusive interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad spoke to AFP in Damascus yesterday, hours before world powers announced plans to push for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria to start in a week's time.
Here are some key points:
-- Assad said that he supported peace talks but this did not mean "that we stop fighting terrorism."
-- The major Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo was aimed at severing the opposition's supply routes from Turkey.
-- Assad fears that Turkey and Saudi Arabia -- both of whom back the opposition -- will intervene militarily in Syria.
-- Europe should stop "giving cover to terrorists" so that Syrians can return home.
-- UN allegations of war crimes were "politicized" and lacking evidence.
-- Assad's eventual goal is to retake all of Syria. "Regardless of whether we can do that or not, this is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation," he said.
-- If opposition supply routes from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq are cut, then it would be possible to "put an end to this problem in less than a year." If not, "the solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price."
Assad vows to regain control over all of Syria, says this could "take a long time"
AFP has published more details from its interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in which he vowed to regain control over all of Syria but warned that this "could take a long time."
Speaking Thursday in Damascus, Assad said his armed forces would try to retake all of Syria "without any hesitation," but that the involvement of regional players "means that the solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price."
Syrian opposition leader slams ceasefire deal
Riyad Hijab, the leader of the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition High Negotiations Council (HNC) has slammed the ceasefire deal made by world powers in Munich, saying there can be no deal before the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Meanwhile, Assad has just told AFP that he wants to retake the whole of Syria and that this could take some time.
Syria's Assad rejects UN war crimes claims