The Taliban said it was in contact with countries in the region but had not discussed support against Islamic State, which it calls Daesh.

Domestically, “The Force Awakens” has grossed a mammoth $544.6 million. Worldwide that figure is nearly $1.1 billion.

The mainly Sunni Arab city, about 90km west of Baghdad, fell to IS in May, and was seen as an embarrassing defeat for the army.

Directed by Justin Kurzel, the video games adaptation is scheduled to open in the U.S. on December 21, 2016.

Samsung plans to launch 2 versions of its new flagship smartphone: a 5.2-inch flat-screen version, and a 5.5-inch, curved-screen version.

The fifth season finale of the medieval drama was illegally downloaded 14.4 million times, according to the piracy tracking site TorrentFreak.

Churches were destroyed in Texas, cars mangled and trees toppled across a 64km zone from south of Dallas up to suburbs in the north-east.

Samy Amimour's burial took place late on December 24 in La Courneuve inter-communal cemetery after it was closed off to the public.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, said the extremism of groups such as IS stemmed from "narrow-mindedness and a lack of moderation."