Thomas Pierret, an Islam expert from the University of Edinburgh, tweets what would be big news if true: the powerful Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam) is considering withdrawing from the Riyadh agreement signed by members of Syria's opposition.
Reuters has more on U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's visit to Iraq today.
Carter is hoping to discuss with Iraqi officials Washington's offer of attack helicopters and advisors to help retake the Iraqi city of Ramadi from IS.
Carter said he would also be speaking to U.S. commanders during his visit to Baghdad to get a reading on the battlefield and "their thinking about ways that we can continue to accelerate the campaign to defeat [IS]," Reuters reports.
Iran's Fars News agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reports that powerful Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani traveled to Moscow last week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Soleimani discussed "the latest developments in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon," Fars reported.
Up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centers were tortured, mistreated or executed, according to a report published today by Human Rights Watch.
The Guardian reports that Human Rights Watch has identified 19 victims from a collection of photographs known as the Caesar Files, which were released by a military defector who chronicled deaths in Syrian government custody.
The report, If the Dead Could Speak, Mass Deaths and Torture in Syria's Detention Facilities, was released this morning in Moscow, two days before the International Support Group on Syria is due to meet in New York to reconvene talks on Syria.
Eight people believed to be linked to the IS group, including seven foreign nationals, have been detained in Turkey's southeastern province ofGaziantep, the Doğan news agency has reported, according to Today's Zaman.
Austria has arrested two people with suspected links to the November 13 attacks in Paris.
AFP has more on the reports that two people have been arrested in Austria with suspected links to the November 13 Paris attacks.
Robert Holzleitner,a spokesman for prosecutors in Salzburg, told AFP that two people "coming from the Middle East" were arrested at the weekend at a center for refugees in Salzburg.
"Indications of a possible link to the Paris attacks are currently being investigated," Holzleitner said.
An Austrian newspaper, the Kronen-Zeitung, reported that the two were French citizens who entered Austria in October with members of the group who carried out the Paris attacks.The two had reportedly been posing as refugees and had fake Syrian passports.
The UK's Royal Navy has tweeted that the HMS Defender is joining the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle on anti-IS operations.
According to the Royal Navy website, HMS Defender is the fifth of the British Navy's six Type-45 destroyers. She returned from her maiden deployment to the Middle East a year ago and has now been deployed again.
Russia says that in the past 24 hours its air strikes in Syria have destroyed a convoy of fuel trucks used by "terrorists."
Speaking to reporters in Syria's Latakia province, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the air strikes by Su-34 jets had hit the convoy in near Deir al-Zor city and destroyed 94 fuel tank trucks.
Another Su-34 had destroyed a convoy of 15 fuel tankers in an area controlled by "terrorists" in Hasakah province, Konashenkov said, adding that the jet had been on "free search."
Russia Praises Its 'Openness' Over Syria Strikes, Slams 'Inaccurate' Foreign Media
Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has commented on what it describes as the "informational openness" of the Russian air campaign in Syria.
Konashenkov also slammed what he said were inaccurate reports in the foreign media regarding indiscriminate air strikes by Russian planes.
"From individual members of the so-called anti-IS coalition we regularly hear criticism of our air strikes against terrorist infrastructure targets in Syria, and there is even a pattern -- the more accurately we strike the terrorists, the more noise there is in the foreign press with references to some anonymous sources about Russian air strikes allegedly being non-selective," Konashenkov said.
"Today, we are the only army in the world which has shown in detail, how and with what Russian high precision weapons on planes and ships we are hitting terrorist targets. At the same time, at best we only know of the results of the anti-IS coalition operations from the words of a few officials."