The Iraqi military says around a hundred decapitated bodies have been found in a mass grave in the recently-retaken town of Hamam al-Alil. Most, they say, were reduced to skeletons.

A new US-backed Kurdish and Arab offensive is underway aimed at retaking the northern city of Raqqa – ISIL’s de facto capital in Syria.

Kurdish peshmerga forces attacked an Islamic State-held town northeast of Mosul on Monday, trying to clear a pocket of militants outside the city while Iraqi troops wage a fierce urban war with the jihadists in its eastern neighbourhoods.

Mosul in Iraq is seeing the most intensive fighting yet since the offensive to retake the city from ISIL militants began more than two weeks ago.

The leader of ISIL Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has expressed confidence in victory in his first message after Iraqi forces started an offensive to retake Mosul from the jihadists.

It is a symbolic victory in the battle to retake control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIL militants.