Accessibility links

Breaking News
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).

12:05 4.1.2016

Libya's Channel is reporting that one of its sources has also said that a storage tank is on fire at the Sidra oil port.

The storage tank on fire reportedly belongs to the Harouge Oil Company and is a crude storage tank.

12:18 4.1.2016

Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that British investigators are trying to establish whether a child who appeared in a grisly new IS killing video is the son of Grace Dare, a British woman with links to the killers of Lee Rigby, a British soldier killed by two Islamist militants in 2013.

Dare went to Syria in 2012 and married a Swedish IS militant, now thought killed. Dare said she wanted to be the first British woman to kill an IS hostage.

12:24 4.1.2016

An Iraqi official has blamed the IS group for the bombing of two Sunni mosques in the predominantly Shi'ite city of Hilla in southern Iraq late on January 3, saying the militant group seeks to stoke sectarian tensions, AP reports.

Provincial security official Falah al-Khafaji told AP he doesn't believe the bombings were linked to an escalating spat between Saudi Arabia and Iran,

Al-Khafaji said that IS "did this to inflame sectarian strife in the country, starting in Hilla."

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi blamed the attacks on "[IS] and those who are similar to them."

12:31 4.1.2016

Il Foglio's Daniele Raineri also notes that IS in Libya has named its successful assault on the town of Bin Jawad after Abu Mughira al-Qahtani, IS's leader in Libya, and added an Arabic phrase meaning "may Allah accept him."

This suggests that al-Qahtani is dead, Raineri says -- noting that IS's glossy magazine, Dabiq, ran an interview with al-Qahtani in September.

Raineri also suggests that al-Qahtani could have been Abu Nabil al-Anbari, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in Libya on November 13.

12:34 4.1.2016

A group of militants in the Philippines has pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a video, the SITE Intel Group says.

12:40 4.1.2016

An update on the reports that have been emerging saying that families in Ras Lanuf in Libya have begun to leave the town amid an ongoing attack by the IS group.

The Red Crescent in Ajdabiya has now reportedly said that families have started leaving Ras Lanuf.

12:51 4.1.2016

Libyan freelance journalist Suliman Ali Zway says that IS's attack on Libya's oil terminals is an attempt to gain control, rather than just an ordinary assault.

12:51 4.1.2016

13:21 4.1.2016

Libyan social media accounts are tweeting photos claiming to show Sidra, which has been targeted by IS militants today.

13:26 4.1.2016

Libya's Al Wasat News is reporting that two guards were killed this morning in IS suicide car bombings at the Sidra oil terminal.

Al Wasat is quoting residents from Ras Lanuf some 20 kilometers away who said that they heard two very loud explosions.

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG