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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).

14:49 10.12.2015

The Sydney Morning Herald has more on the 15-year-old boy arrested in Sydney this morning on terror charges.

The boy had become heavily radicalized over the past year and allegedly took part in planning an attack on a government building.

The teenager used the word "banana" as a code word for "firearm" in text messages, saying in one message he allegedly sent that he was "going to get to paradise through banana."

14:52 10.12.2015

IS militants have destroyed a lock on the Euphrates River that served as a bridge in the Iraqi town of Ramadi as government forces close in on the extremists.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, the head of military operations in Anbar province, said the lock was the last remaining bridge from the city center to the northwest and its destruction leaves around 300 IS militants trapped in Ramadi's center.

15:04 10.12.2015

AP has pieced together the movements of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam in the months leading up to the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people.

Authorities believe that, starting in August, Abdeslam drove thousands of kilometers across Europe to "buy gear,rent cars, book rooms,scout locations and move people into place" for the attacks, AP writes.

15:14 10.12.2015

Australia's so-called "Ginger Jihadi," a 17-year-old IS recruit who rose to notoriety after running away to Syria and appearing in an IS propaganda video, has reportedly been killed, Australian media is reporting.

Abdullah Elmir is thought by Australian counter-terrorism agencies to have been killed in a bombing raid in Syria around eight to 10 weeks ago.

15:19 10.12.2015

Fighters and a rebel negotiator in the al-Waer neighborhood of Homs in Syria have said that remaining rebels there have no intention of leaving or turning their weapons over, Syria Direct reports.

Busloads of rebels and their families left Al-Waer yesterday for rebel-controlled areas in northern Syria as part of a truce deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

But fighters, journalists, civilians and the rebel negotiator told Syria Direct today that rebels will stay in Al-Waer with light and some medium weapons in order to protect civilians.

15:24 10.12.2015

This just in on progress made at the talks in Riyadh among Syrian opposition groups.

15:26 10.12.2015

AFP's Ahmad Rubaye has taken these photographs from Al-Tameem, the neighborhood in the Iraqi city of Ramadi retaken from IS by Iraqi troops.

15:27 10.12.2015

Iran analyst Arash Karami has this to say about recent reports that Iran is retreating from Syria.

15:31 10.12.2015

CNN has a couple more details about the police search in Geneva for suspects who could be linked to the November 13 terror attacks in Paris.

"We have gone from a vague threat to a precise threat," Emmanuelle Lo Verso, head of communications at the Geneva Department of Security, told CNN. She would not comment on the nature of the threat.

The statement added that the "level of vigilance" in the city has been raised and that more police have been put on the streets.

15:35 10.12.2015

Syrian hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has withdrawn from Syrian opposition talks in Riyadh, analyst Hassan Hassan is reporting.

Hassan comments:

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