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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).

14:50 17.12.2015

Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando received two Kalashnikov bullets and a threatening letter on Thursday, written in Arabic and purporting to be from Islamic State, a ministry spokeswoman said.

She said the letter was signed "ISIS", another acronym for the IS group.

The letter was delivered to the Justice Ministry in Rome and said, "we will come to Rome and cut off your head. God is great."

14:56 17.12.2015

A Moscow court has extended the arrest of a Moscow University student accused of trying to join the IS group in Syria, until March 27.

Karaulova has been remanded in custody since her arrest on October 28. Her alleged recruiter was arrested on October 27.

Karaulova left home on May 27 and flew to Turkey. On June 4 she was arrested alongside 12 other Russians while attempting to cross the border into Syria.

15:09 17.12.2015

Journalist Roozbeh Kaboly from Dutch National Television's Nieuwsuur has shared photographs taken just kilometers from the front line with IS near Palmyra in Syria.

Kaboly was on the Syrian-held side of the front line very close to the IS-held city.

15:13 17.12.2015

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter returned to Iraq today for a day of meetings with Kurdish officials and for briefings about the fight against the IS group in northern Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Carter was briefed on a significant battle between IS and Kurdish militias that took place on December 16 when IS launched three separate offensives north and east of the IS-controlled city of Mosul. The Peshmerga pushed IS back, and coalition airstrikes killed some 180 IS militants, a senior military officer said.

15:14 17.12.2015

The United States and its allies on Wednesday conducted 18 air strikes against the IS group in Iraq and Syria in its latest round of daily air attacks against the militant group, the U.S.-led coalition has said.

15:16 17.12.2015

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials on December 20 and 21 to coordinate efforts to defeat the IS group, his office has announced.

"On December 20 and 21 Mr Le Drian will go to Russia to discuss coordination in the fight against [IS], defense ministry spokesman Pierre Bayle told a press conference today.

15:43 17.12.2015

Iran's Mashregh News, which has ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), tweets that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is set to visit Tehran in early January to discuss the Syrian crisis.

16:05 17.12.2015

Pakistan has confirmed it's part of a Saudi-led "Islamic military alliance" against terrorism in but remained vague about when exactly it joined up, AP reports.

AP quotes Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman, Qazi Khalilullah, as telling reporters "yes,we're part of it" when asked about the alliance.

Khalilullah denied yesterday's media reports that claimed Pakistan was "surprised" to hear that it was a member of the 34-nation alliance announced by Saudi Arabia earlier this week.

16:16 17.12.2015

Alexey Pushkov, head of the State Duma lower house committee for foreign affairs, has said that the United States had been forced into dialogue with Russia over Syria and the fight against the IS group.

"It is a kind of forced decision as they never opted for it. But they might stay in the game only by holding dialogue with Russia," TASS quoted Pushkov as saying.

"The only way out for the United States is to launch a dialogue with Russia."

Pushkov made his comments during a Russian-French inter-parliamentary seminar.

16:45 17.12.2015

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has discussed the issue of resolving the Syrian conflict in a telephone call today with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The phone call comes ahead of a meeting of world powers tomorrow in New York to discuss a peaceful solution to the civil war in Syria.

Kerry visited Moscow earlier this week for talks with Lavrov and Russian President Putin on Syria. Today's phone call was a "development" of that meeting, the Foreign Ministry said.

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