Air strikes, shelling and other heavy clashes have shaken a small sliver of western Mosul in renewed fighting, a day after the Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State in the city.

The Islamic State group has dramatically expanded its theatre of operations from its hub in Syria and Iraq, executing or inspiring a series of attacks across three continents that claimed more than 800 lives this year.

The unfolding refugee crisis is become the biggest humanitarian tragedy in Europe since the Yugoslav wars.

Despite being 72 and grieving the recent loss of his son, questions remain about whether Joe Biden will challenge for the Democratic nomination, writes Bette Browne.

IS militants have reduced the amount of water flowing to government-held areas in Iraq’s western Anbar province, an official said.

Three Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a police base in Iraq’s western Anbar province with explosives-laden trucks, killing at least 35 police and Shiite militiamen.

Islamic State (IS) extremists have unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops.

Defence secretary critical of US bid to help Iraq fight Islamic State

Islamic State (IS) militants have overrun the famed archaeological site at Palmyra, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighbouring Iraq.

Islamic State militants are in full control of the famed archaeological site in the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria, according to activists.

Militants unleashed a wave of bombings yesterday targeting commercial areas in and around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 18 civilians, officials said, as clashes continued between government forces and Islamic State militants in the western province of Anbar.

World leaders and top dignitaries have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia to give their condolences following the death of King Abdullah, who died yesterday aged 90 after nearly two decades at the helm.

Suspected Islamic State bombers assassinated an Iraqi provincial police chief and killed 28 people in an attack on a Kurdish security headquarters yesterday a second straight day of mass attacks that killed scores.

Militants who seized large areas of Iraq’s Sunni heartland with lightning advances this week have pushed into an ethnically mixed province and captured two towns north east of Baghdad, officials said.

Islamic militants have vowed to march on Baghdad to settle old scores after seizing a number of cities and towns in Iraq.

Al-Qaida-inspired militants have pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland, conquering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces yielded ground once controlled by US forces.

Attacks across Iraq, including a series of bombings targeting shoppers in a Sunni neighbourhood in the capital Baghdad, have killed at least 16 people today.

Iraqi authorities have found the corpses of 18 men shot near a Sunni town just north of Baghdad, hours after they were abducted by gunmen wearing military uniforms.

At least 19 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a dual suicide car bombing at a military base just north of the capital Baghdad.

Syrian government forces have reached an agreement with local officials of a vulnerable Sunni village in a region dominated by President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect to end hours of deadly shelling in exchange for the surrender of dozens of opposition fighters, an activist group said today.

An explosion inside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad has killed at least 11 people in the latest outburst of violence to hit Iraq.

Al-Qaida has said it was behind raids on two high-security prisons on the outskirts of Baghdad this week that killed dozens and set free hundreds of inmates, including some of its followers.

A bomb has exploded inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq during midday prayers, killing at least 15 people.

The Syrian army has triumphantly announced the capture of a strategic town near the Lebanese border, telling the nation it has “cleansed” the rebel-held Qusair of “terrorists” who are fighting President Bashar Assad’s troops.

Bombs struck Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas today, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months, officials said today.

A bomb has killed 26 people at a Sunni mosque in central Iraq, security officials say.

President Bashar Assad’s regime has committed a “large-scale massacre” in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast, killing at least 50 people, according to activists.

President Bashar Assad’s regime has committed a “large-scale massacre” in a Sunni village near the Mediterranean coast, killing at least 50 people, according to activists.

A wave of bombings has left at least 43 people dead in Iraq.

Overnight clashes in Beirut between Sunni and Shiite gunmen have wounded at least six people, Lebanese officials said.

Government forces stormed a rebel-held town outside Damascus yesterday after days of fighting, killing at least 23 fighters, according to an activist group and a rebel spokesman.

Market blasts and other bombings across Iraq killed at least 33 people and wounded nearly 100 today, spurring security officials to clamp down on traffic as Shiite Muslims brace for more tragedy during pilgrimages this week.

At least 33 people have been killed in a series of blasts in Iraq, officials said today.

Three bombs planted on motorcycles went off in quick succession near a market and police station in a town in central Iraq on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

A series of bombs around Iraq’s capital have killed nine people and wounded more than 40 today, police said.

Twelve people have been killed in a series of bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

One person was killed and 10 injured in overnight clashes in Beirut between Sunni Muslim groups that support and oppose the Syrian regime, Lebanese security officials said today.

The governor of Iraq’s largest Sunni province has survived an assassination attempt in a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Five people have been killed in a series of blasts in western Baghdad.

Thirteen people have been killed in a car bomb attack outside a restaurant south of Baghdad, an Iraqi doctor said today.

Gunmen wearing military uniforms have pulled seven people from a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad and then shot and killed them, execution-style.

A RELENTLESS barrage of bombings killed 63 people yesterday in the most sweeping and coordinated attack Iraq has seen in over a year, striking 17 cities from northern Sunni areas to the southern Shi’ite heartland.

A suicide bomber in the northern city of Tikrit and gunmen in the Iraqi capital killed a total of seven people today, officials said.

A bomb targeting worshippers attending Friday prayers at a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad has killed 16 people and wounded dozens more, the top medical official in the province said.

SAUDI ARABIA has sent troops into Bahrain to help put down weeks of protests by the Shi’ite Muslim majority, a move opponents of the Sunni ruling family called a declaration of war.

Iraq’s president has declared that he will not sign off on the hanging of Tariq Aziz, joining the Vatican and others in objecting to the death sentence for the man who for years was the international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

A SUICIDE bomber sat for hours yesterday among hundreds of army recruits before detonating nail-packed explosives strapped to his body, killing 61 people and casting new doubt on the ability of Iraqi forces as US troops head home.

A roadside bomb apparently aimed at a senior Transport Ministry official missed its target and killed two bystanders instead, Iraqi officials said today.