More than 50 companies worldwide are legally supplying the Islamic State with bomb-making material, either willingly or because they and the countries in which they operate are failing to monitor the sales, according to a Conflict Armament Research report released today.

CAR is a non-governmental organization funded by the European Union that identifies and tracks conventional weapons and ammunition in contemporary armed conflicts. While there is no evidence in the report released today to prove direct transfer between the countries and firms involved, and IS, it shows that companies are extensively supplying local markets with material such as chemical precursors, detonating cords, detonators, cables, wires and other electronic components, and that the Islamic State has the reach to acquire them.

The way it works is that large manufacturers are selling material and components to regional distributors, who then sell to local distributors, CAR's Executive Director James Bevan told ABC News, adding: "it gets fuzzy at the local level. Operatives [for IS] or friendly parties for them buy [components and material] from the local market in reasonable bulk," Bevan said.

CAR established in its report that in some cases it has taken as little as one month for bomb-making material to get from legal distributors to the hands of IS.

Working with Iraqi and Syrian forces to recover material left after battles, investigators from CAR have examined more than 700 components used in improvised explosive devices by IS and established their link to 51 companies in 20 countries.

One example is Microsoft and the use of its Nokia mobile phones by Islamic State in Iraq. The report has found that IS uses the Nokia 105 RM-908 phone in a remote-controlled IED.

"Microsoft Corporation, of which Microsoft Mobile is an affiliate, has provided CAR with extensive information on the chain of custody of ten mobile telephones seized from IS forces in Iraq," the report says. Among them, at least five were legally purchased by a regional distributor in Yemen, Ghamdan General Trading & Import. They were then delivered to local providers in Erbil, Iraq or Dubai, where they were likely purchased by IS intermediaries or operatives. When asked by ABC News for comment, Microsoft said they have nothing to add that isn't said in the report.

Turkey has the largest number of companies involved in supplying IED components to IS, according to the report.

One of the problems is that local providers are generally not aware what components can be used for IEDs, Bevan said. "Many components that can be used in the manufacture of homemade explosives, such as aluminium paste and urea, are not subject to transfer controls, including export licensing," the report says. "As such, their supply within the region is largely unregulated and weakly monitored."

Another problem is that governments don’t necessarily have the regulatory framework to control the market, Bevan added. "Both Iraq and Turkey have large agricultural and mining sectors, in which many such chemicals and explosive components are employed extensively," the report says, adding that aluminium mixed with fertilizer is one of the most common forms of homemade explosives used by IS in Iraq and Syria.

IEDs are being manufactured and deployed by the Islamic State on a massive scale and fighters with degrees in physics, chemistry and computer science have been recruited to manufacture lethal weapons from raw substances, according to a December 2015 briefing by the European Parliamentary Research Service, which calls itself "the European Parliament's in-house research department and think tank."

When CAR approached representatives of the companies involved in the supply chain, some were surprised at the findings and others were shocked, Bevan said. "Western companies with subsidiaries in Turkey could tell their distributors that they do not want their products going to IS anymore," Bevan said. "We hope that’s going to happen and we think it will."

Children play near damaged buildings in the rebel held historic southern town of Bosra al-Sham, Deraa, Syria February 23, 2016. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Faqir

By Tom Perry and Lidia Kelly

BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria's government and rebel groups have agreed to join a plan to cease hostilities on Saturday, Russia said, while fighting raged on several fronts as combatants sought to gain advantage hours before the agreement was due to start.

The U.S.-Russian "cessation of hostilities" accord is due to begin at midnight (2200 GMT on Friday). Warring parties had been required to accept by noon.

Under the measure, which has not been signed by the Syrian warring parties themselves and is less binding than a formal ceasefire, the government and its enemies are expected to halt firing to allow aid to reach civilians and peace talks to begin.

The truce does not apply to jihadist groups such as Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and the Damascus government and its Russian allies say they will not halt combat against those militants. Other rebels seen as moderates by the West say they fear this will be used to justify attacks on them.

As the deadline approached, heavy air strikes were reported to have hit rebel-held areas near Damascus as fighting raged across much of western Syria.

View gallery

Men sell produce on their carts in the rebel held besieged city of Douma, a suburb of Damascus, Syri …

The Syrian government has agreed to the plan. The main opposition alliance, which has deep reservations about the terms, said it would accept it for two weeks.

The rebel HNC alliance said the government and its allies must not use the agreement to attack opposition factions under the pretext that they were terrorists.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia had received information that all parties expected to take part in the cessation of hostilities had said they were ready to do so, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin stressed that combat actions against Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other groups which the Syrian government regards as terrorists would continue.

"I would like to express the hope that our American partners will also bear this in mind ... and that nobody will forget that there are other terrorist organizations apart from Islamic State," he said in Moscow.

View gallery

A fire trail is seen during clashes between forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad an …

A source close to the U.N. Syrian peace process in Geneva said the "vast majority" of eligible armed groups had signaled they would agree to the plan.

BREATHING SPACE

The United Nations hopes the cessation of hostilities will provide a breathing space to resume peace talks in Geneva, which collapsed this month before they began.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official said the Geneva talks could resume on March 7. In New York, diplomats said the U.N. Security Council would vote on Friday on an resolution endorsing the planned pause in fighting.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organization, on Friday reported at least 26 air raids and artillery shelling targeting the town of Douma in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.

View gallery

Civilains walk past the rubble of damaged buildings in the rebel held historic southern town of Bosr …

Rescue workers said five people were killed in Douma. Syrian military officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Eastern Ghouta is regularly targeted by the Syrian army and its allies. It is a stronghold of the Jaish al-Islam rebel group, which is represented in the main opposition alliance, the High Negotiations Committee. The area has been used as a launch pad for rocket and mortar attacks on Damascus.

The HNC groups political and armed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, and many groups fighting in northern and southern Syria have authorized it to negotiate on their behalf.

The Observatory also reported artillery bombardment by government forces and air strikes overnight in Hama province, and artillery fire by government forces in Homs province.

Fighting also resumed at dawn between rebels and government forces in the northwestern province of Latakia, where the Syrian army and its allies are trying to take back more territory from insurgents at the border with Turkey.

View gallery

A boy rides a bicycle past a man sitting on rubble of a damaged house in the rebel held historic sou …

A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has serious worries about the plan to halt violence in Syria because of the continued fighting on the ground.

Turkey's role in the ceasefire has been complicated by its deep distrust of the Washington-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG. Ankara sees the group as a terrorist organization and has shelled YPG positions in northern Syria in recent weeks in retaliation, it says, for cross-border fire.

Washington has supported the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday the United States was resolved to try to make the cessation of hostilities deal work but that "there are plenty of reasons for scepticism".

(Additional reporting by Denis Dyomkin, Dmitry Solovyov, Jack Stubbs, Tom Miles, Tulay Karadeniz, Humeyra Pamuk and Louis Charbonneau; writing by Giles Elgood; editing by Peter Graff)

Beirut (AFP) - Russian warplanes carried out intense air strikes on rebel strongholds in Syria on Friday hours before a ceasefire was due to come into force, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Russia dismissed the reports and said it was continuing strikes on "terrorist organisations" ahead of the truce.

The partial ceasefire between regime forces and non-jihadist rebel fighters is due to take effect at midnight Friday (2200 GMT) Damascus time. It does not include the Islamic State jihadist group and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.

"From last night to this morning there have been Russian air strikes that are more intense than usual on rebel bastions including on Eastern Ghouta east of Damascus, in the north of Homs province and in the west of Aleppo province," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Air strikes in the non-jihadist rebel-held Qabtan al-Jabal area of Aleppo province killed eight members of the same family including three children on Thursday night, the monitor said.

"There were at least 25 air strikes on Eastern Ghouta," a main rebel bastion where the predominant opposition faction is the Jaish al-Islam movement, Abdel Rahman said.

"At least 10 of those hit Douma", an area there, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies of a wide network of sources in Syria.

"At the same time regime forces have violently shelled the city," Abdel Rahman said.

"It's more intense than usual. It's as if they (the Russians and the regime) want to subdue rebels in these regions or score points before the ceasefire," he said.

View gallery

A video grab made on November 23, 2015 purporting to show an explosion after airstrikes carried out …

Russian air strikes also hit the Daret Ezza area in western Aleppo province and Talbisseh city in Homs province.

In these areas, as in Ghouta, rebels outnumber Nusra fighters, the monitor said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the Observatory's reports.

"The Russian air force is certainly continuing its operation in Syria" but against "terrorist organisations," he said.

Since Moscow launched air strikes in Syria in September, it has been accused of hitting non-jihadist rebel groups in support of the Damascus regime, a longtime ally.

Abdel Rahman said the implementation of the partial truce will be complicated as Nusra are allied with rebels -- Islamist and non-Islamist -- in several parts of Syria.

Their "territories overlap especially in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. It will be very complex," Abdel Rahman said.

More than 270,000 people have been killed since the war erupted in March 2011, and millions have fled their homes.

View gallery

A man carrying his bicycle past debris and burning cars following reported airstrikes in the town of …

Intense Russian air strikes battered rebel bastions across Syria on Friday, a monitor said, just hours before a midnight deadline for a landmark ceasefire in the country's five-year civil war.

With the ceasefire due to take effect at 2200 GMT on Friday, US President Barack Obama has warned Damascus and key ally Moscow that the "world will be watching".

Both President Bashar al-Assad's regime and the main opposition body have agreed to the deal -- which allows fighting to continue against the Islamic State (IS) group and other jihadists.

The agreement brokered by Russia and the United States marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end Syria's violence, but has been plagued by doubts after the failure of previous peace efforts.

Members of the 17-nation group backing the process are to meet in Geneva on Friday to work out further details of the so-called "cessation of hostilities", which is then expected to be endorsed by the UN Security Council, diplomats said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said Russia and the regime had launched a wave of attacks on non-jihadist rebel areas ahead of the deadline.

"It's more intense than usual. It's as if they want to subdue rebels in these regions or score points before the ceasefire," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Russia launched air strikes in Syria last September saying it was targeting "terrorists" but critics have accused Moscow of hitting rebel forces in support of Assad, a longtime ally.

View gallery

Syrian men carry a body outside a makeshift hospital following reported air strikes in the city of A …

- Complex battlefields -

The Observatory said there had been Russian strikes overnight on rebel bastions including the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, the north of Homs province and the west of Aleppo province.

There was also intense regime shelling of the rebel-held city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, he said.

The Kremlin dismissed reports of attacks on non-jihadist rebels.

"The Russian air force is certainly continuing its operation in Syria" but against "terrorist organisations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The intensified attacks prompted Turkey, a key supporter of opposition forces, to express worries over the viability of the ceasefire.

"We are seriously concerned over the future of the ceasefire because of the continuing Russian air raids and ground attacks by forces of Assad," presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara.

The complexity of Syria's battlefields -- where moderate and Islamist rebel forces often fight alongside jihadist groups like the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front -- has raised serious doubts about the feasibility of a ceasefire.

View gallery

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Syria peaceplan is "complicated" (AFP Photo/Michail …

Diplomats are reported to be working to define areas that will fall under the partial truce and to set up monitoring mechanisms.

The UN's Syria envoy has said he hopes the agreement will lead to a resumption of peace talks which collapsed earlier this month in Geneva.

Russia and the United States are on opposing sides of the conflict, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition, but the two powers have been making a concerted push for the ceasefire to be respected.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to do "whatever is necessary" to ensure the ceasefire is implemented. Iran, another key Assad ally, has said it is confident the regime will respect the agreement.

Huddling with his national security advisors in Washington on Thursday, Obama put the onus for upholding the ceasefire firmly on the regime and Russia.

- Doubts, pessimism -

He said he was not "under any illusions" about possible pitfalls, but that the ceasefire could help bring about an end to the war.

"A lot of that is going to depend on whether the Syrian regime, Russia, and their allies live up to their commitments," Obama said.

"The coming days will be critical, and the world will be watching."

Obama also said the US-coalition that launched air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq in 2014 was making progress, citing territorial gains.

"More people are realising that ISIL is not a caliphate, it's a crime ring," he said, using an alternative acronym for the group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been a major booster of the ceasefire but others in Washington have been less optimistic about the chances of ending a conflict that has left more than 270,000 dead and forced millions from their homes.

"There's pessimism, not expectation, pessimism," a senior US official told AFP, citing what he said was Russia's history of making then breaking ceasefire commitments in conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine.

"What real incentives do the Russians have to act in good faith?" asked Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"There is no credible threat of military force and without a credible threat of military force, the Russians are going to act like they have been acting for the past several years."

Kerry has warned that Washington is considering a "Plan B" to deal with Syria if the ongoing efforts fail, but has not provided any details.