We are now closing the live blog for today. Until we resume again, you can catch up with some of our other Islamic State coverage here.
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this item posted by our news desk overnight on the mass grave found in Iraq:
A bomb-rigged mass grave containing the remains of more than 120 people killed by the Islamic State (IS) group has been found in northern Iraq, an official told the AFP news agency.
It is the sixth mass grave found in or near the town of Sinjar since it was recaptured from IS militants earlier this month, said Mahma Khalil, the official responsible for the area.
It is estimated that the grave site contains the remains of 123 people, based on accounts from those who witnessed the executions.
The grave site, located 10 kilometers west of Sinjar, is surrounded by a large number of bombs.
The site has not yet been excavated, but some of the remains of the victims have been exposed by rainwater.
This is the biggest of the mass graves found so far, Sinjar's mayor, Mahma Khalil, told the BBC.
(AFP, BBC)
RFE/RL's Georgian Service has given us this heart-rending video in which the mother of an Islamist militant tries to come to term with what has become of her son:
The mother of a Georgian man, who appeared in a video released on November 23 calling on Muslims to behead infidels, expressed bewilderment at her son's transformation. In an interview with RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondent Nata Imedaishvili, Meri Iremadze said she feels anger toward her son, Badri Iremadze. The interview was conducted on November 25 in the village of Nasakirali in Guria region of western Georgia.
This has been doing the rounds on social media over the past few days:
It seems some more Islamic State mass graves may have been found in Iraq (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Three more mass graves have been found in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, where Kurdish forces drove out Islamic State militants earlier this month.
Officials said on November 29 that the graves are believed to contain 80 to 100 bodies.
Two graves have been found east of the town and one has been found within the town itself, bringing the total number of mass graves uncovered to five.
IS captured the town in August 2014 and began killing and enslaving members of the Yazidi religious minority, leading thousands of residents to flee into the mountains.
A U.S.-led coalition began carrying out strikes against the extremist group later that month, partly out of concern for their plight.
(AP)