There are reports that at least 25 Iraqi security forces have been killed in clashes with IS militants near Haditha in Anbar province.
Russia estimates as "very high" the probability that IS militants in Syria have used chemical weapons, Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian foreign ministry department for non-proliferation and arms control, has said.
"We have repeatedly noted the facts of the probable use of chemical weapons by IS militants and in a wider sense by Islamic radicals, starting with the attacks in Khan al-Assal [in Aleppo province] in March 2013 against government forces," Ulyanov said.
"Later there was East Ghouta in August 2013."
Russia claimed in July 2013 that it had evidence showing that a projectile that hit Khan al-Assal on March 19, 2013 contained sarin and was most likely fired by rebels. At least 27 people died in the attack.
Il Foglio correspondent Daniele Raineri offers some insight into why IS militants in Libya are attacking oil terminals. If they did gain control of Libya's oil resources, militants would not be able to export oil but would be able to control cash flowing to what they consider a "non-Islamic state."
The IS-linked 'Amaq News Agency has released a video that is says shows images of IS militants in control of oil storage tanks south of Sidra in Libya.
The one-minute and 17 second video has been shared on social media.
London mayor Boris Johnson has said that a small child shown threatening "unbelievers" in a new IS propaganda video should be taken from his parents and placed in foster care if his family ever returns to Britain.
"This child is a victim of child abuse and he is, as I understand it, a British national," Johnson said. "I think we have a duty of care."
The child was identified by his grandfather, who lives in London. The identify of the child and an adult IS militant who appears in the video have not been officially confirmed.
Reuters has more on comments made by U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition against IS, in a press conference earlier today.
Warren said that IS territory shrank by 40 percent from its maximum expansion in Iraq and by 20 percent in Syria.
"We believe in Iraq it's about 40 percent ... And Syria, harder to get a good number, we think it's around 20," Warren said.
"Taking together Iraq and Syria .. they lost 30 percent of the territory they once held."
Libya's National Oil Corp. (NOC) has issued a "cry for help" as IS militants attacked a second oil tank in the country's largest oil port of Sidra today, Bloomberg reports.
"We are helpless and not being able to do anything against this deliberate destruction to the oil installations" in Sidra and the nearby Ras Lanuf oil terminals, NOC said.
"National Oil Corporation urges all faithful and honorable people of this homeland to hurry to rescue what is left from our resources before it is too late."
AFP has spoken to a tribal commander in Iraq's Anbar province and the mayor of Haditha, who confirmed heavy casualties in major clashes with IS militants near Haditha.
Tribal commander Abdallah Atallah told AFP by phone that 25 Iraqi fighters have been killed in 72 hours and that dozens more have been wounded.
"It was one of the biggest offensives we have seen. It came from three directions," he said.
Haditha mayor Mabrouk Hamid said that Haditha was "targeted Sunday [January 3] by a massive offensive involving more than 40 vehicles, all armored, and some explosives-laden."
The U.S.-led coalition against IS has published details of air strikes carried out yesterday (January 4) against the IS group in Iraq and Syria.
These include two strikes near Haditha -- where Iraqi tribal and security forces are battling a major IS offensive -- which hit near two separate IS tactical units and destroyed an IS mortar position, three IS fighting positions, four IS vehicles, two IS heavy machine guns, and wounded two IS militants.
Fayez Seraj, the head of the Presidency Council of the Libyan Government of National Accord, has spoken with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni about the attacks by the IS group on Libyan oil terminals.