Self-styled Islamic State militants have set up giant television screens in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and are using them to proclaim they will seize more Iraqi territory, after capturing the provincial capital last month.
Efforts by the Shia Muslim-led government and its American allies to break the hard-line group's control of about a third of Iraq are currently focused on Ramadi, in Sunni Muslim heartland Anbar province.
Residents of Ramadi claim IS has started showing videos of their military operations in Iraq as well as confessions by captured soldiers.
Certain programmes are reported to be encouraging young men to abide by Islamic norms and also show military training of young men on carrying arms and how to fight.
The Iraqi government, whose army has largely proven ineffective against the insurgents, relies heavily on Iranian-backed Shia militias as well as on US-led airstrikes to slow the momentum of Islamic State, which it describes as terrorists.
IS has resorted to killing anyone it deems an opponent as it tries to create a sustainable caliphate in territory it holds in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of 450 more US troops to Anbar to assist Iraqi forces in retaking territory lost to IS.
The group has used social media sites and videos to gain followers, distributing footage of its fighters killing Iraqi government soldiers and religious minorities.
Residents in Ramadi said compact discs of the broadcasts were being distributed at stalls near the two screens, which the militants set up by the central market and in northern Ramadi.
Meanwhile, Kurdish militia have advanced to the gates of a strategic jihadist-held town on Syria's northern border with Turkey, amid fierce fighting with IS, a local commander told AFP news agency.
"The clashes are ongoing now on the eastern edges of Tal Abyad, 50 metres from the town. We are fighting for control of the first checkpoint," said Hussein Khojer, a commander with the Kurdish People's Protection Units.
Tal Abyad lies on the Syrian-Turkish border and is used by IS as a gateway from Turkey into its bastion province of Raqa.
