The leader of the Islamic State militant group that controls tracts of Syria and Iraq has accepted a pledge of allegiance from Nigerian Islamists Boko Haram, his spokesman said, calling on supporters to fight in Africa.

"Our caliph, God save him, has accepted the pledge of loyalty of our brothers of Boko Haram so we congratulate Muslims and our jihadi brothers in West Africa," Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani said in an audio message, referring to his group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In the audio message, Adnani called on Muslims who could not join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to enter combat in Africa instead, saying Boko Haram's pledge had opened a "new door for you to migrate to the land of Islam and fight."

"We are calling you up for jihadis, go."

The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham wants to blow up your White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower, its official spokesman said in an audio message Thursday that claimed the ultraviolent extremist group had expanded its reach into West Africa.

In his first speech in two months, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani accepted a pledge of allegiance from the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram and listed the cities we want, from Paris and Rome to Jerusalem and Kabul.

The 28-minute Arabic-language audio, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, appeared to be an attempt to rally ISIS fighters and intimidate international audiences amid setbacks in Iraq.

Al-Adnani was also capitalizing on the recent decision of Boko Haram, notorious for its indiscriminate bombings and kidnappings of girls, to align itself with ISIS. He called it a new door opened by Allah and directed jihadists to West Africa.

All Muslims, you should all come to your State, for we are calling on you to mobilize for jihad. We incite you and call upon you to immigrate for jihad and to immigrate to your brothers in West Africa, the terrorist leader said.

Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria and is active in Tunisia's chaotic neighbor Libya, praised the two attackers in an audio recording in Arabic, calling them "knights of the Islamic State" armed with machineguns and bombs.

"We tell the apostates who sit on the chest of Muslim Tunisia: Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, or impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain," the Islamic State audio said.

The two dead militants were identified as Tunisians, Hatem al-Khashnawi and Yassin al-Abidi. Two local newspapers reported Abidi had spent time in Iraq and Libya, but officials did not confirm that.

"We have identified them, it is indeed these two terrorists," the premier told French RTL radio earlier on Thursday.

Reuters wrote Islamic State has posted online what it says are the names, U.S. addresses and photos of 100 American military service members, and called upon its "brothers residing in America" to kill them.

In the posting, a group referring to itself as the "Islamic State Hacking Division" wrote in English that it had hacked several military servers, databases and emails and made public the information on 100 members of the U.S. military so that "lone wolf" attackers can kill them.

The posting, addressed to disbelievers, Christians and "crusaders" in America, included what the group said were the names, military service branch, photos and street addresses of the individuals. The posting includes the military rank of some but not all of those named.

The Times quoted officials as saying the list appeared to have been drawn from personnel mentioned in news articles about air strikes on Islamic State.

Reuters wrote The Iraqi government claimed victory over Islamic State insurgents in Tikrit on Wednesday after a month-long battle for the city supported by Shi'ite militiamen and U.S.-led air strikes, saying that only small pockets of resistance remained.

State television showed Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, accompanied by leaders of the army and police, the provincial governor and Shi'ite paramilitary leaders, parading through Tikrit and raising an Iraqi flag.

"Most of Tikrit today is liberated, only small parts remain (outside our control). We will give you the good news in the next few hours after eliminating the pockets that are still in the city," he said.

Speaking in an abandoned cityscape scarred by gunfire, Ghabban said his federal police had fought for every house and road and were now working to de-mine Tikrit, a city with a pre-war population of a quarter of a million, which he said was full of booby traps planted by Islamic State.

Islamic State has taken control of 90 percent of a Palestinian refugee camp on the Damascus outskirts where 18,000 civilians have suffered years of bombing, army siege and militia control, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

The hardline group's offensive in Yarmouk gives it a major presence in the capital. Islamic State, the most powerful insurgent group in Syria, is now only a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power.

The United Nations has said it is extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrians and Palestinians in the camp. Civilians trapped there have long suffered a government siege that has led to starvation and disease.

"The situation in Yarmouk is an affront to the humanity of all of us, a source of universal shame," U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness said.

"Yarmouk is a test, a challenge for the international community. We must not fail. The credibility of the international system itself is at stake," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain, said Syrian air force jet bombed the camp on Saturday.

The Islamic State on Wednesday launched an attack on other groups of fighters in Yarmouk, in particular Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, an anti-Assad militia of Syrians and Palestinians from the camp.

Islamic State supporters posted photos on social media of the severed heads of two men they said had been beheaded after fighting for Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis.

Hackers claiming allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized control of a global French television network, simultaneously blacking out 11 channels and taking over the network's website and social media accounts. The attack appeared to be an unprecedented step in the extremist group's information warfare tactics.

The hackers briefly cut transmission of 11 channels belonging to TV5 Monde and took over its websites and social media accounts starting Wednesday night. The channel's director, Yves Bigot, said the attack was continuing Thursday. He told RTL radio that the network had restored its signal but could only broadcast recorded programs.

The Islamic extremist group has claimed complex hackings before, but experts and a French official said the ability to black out a global television network represented a new level of sophistication for the group. The Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday it has opened a terrorism investigation into the attack.

Bigot said he was shaken when he saw the black screen across the network's broadcasts "and when we discovered the sense of the message appearing on our social media and our websites, it both allowed us to understand what was happening and obviously worried us."

The message on the TV5 Monde website read in part "I am IS" with a banner by a group that called itself Cybercaliphate. It was replaced later Thursday by a simple message saying that it was undergoing maintenance.

The Washington Times wrote The Islamic State terror group is operating a camp in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, just eight miles from the U.S. border, Judicial Watch reported Tuesday.

Citing sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector, the conservative watchdog group reported that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is organizing only a few miles from El Paso, Texas, in the Anapra neighborhood of Jurez and in Puerto Palomas.

Judicial Watch sources said that coyotes working for the notorious Juarez Cartel are smuggling Islamic State terrorists across the U.S. border between the New Mexico cities of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, as well as through the porous border between Acala and Fort Hancock, Texas.

The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, blamed the Islamic State extremist group for a suicide bombing here on Saturday that killed 35 civilians. If responsibility is confirmed, it will suggest a major escalation of the groups activities in Afghanistan.

The bombing at the Kabul Bank branch here, in which a man wearing an explosive vest targeted a crowd of people waiting to collect their pay, also wounded 125, making it the worst suicide attack this year, Afghan officials said. All of the victims were civilians, the police said.

Today the deadly attack in Nangarhar Province who claimed responsibility? said Mr. Ghani, speaking on national television during a visit to the northern province of Badakhshan, which has been hit hard by recent Taliban attacks. Taliban did not claim responsibility, but Daesh claimed responsibility. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

If Islamic State militants did carry out the attack, it will be the first time they have struck so far from their Middle East home ground.

Reuters wrote Russia is arming Iraq and Syria to help them fight Islamic State, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, calling the radical militant group the main threat to his own country's security.

"Islamic State is our main enemy at the moment. If only because hundreds of Russian citizens, hundreds of Europeans, hundreds of Americans fight alongside IS," he said in an interview with three radio stations. "They are already coming back... and to enjoy themselves could stage vile acts at home."

"We are helping both Iraq and Syria, possibly more effectively than anyone else, by providing weapons to their armies and security forces," Lavrov said, without giving details of the weapons.