US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a multi-pronged assault to retake the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, marking the next phase in the country's war against Islamic State.

Islamic State has struck back as Iraqi forces close in on victory in Mosul, sending women suicide bombers to target soldiers as the battle for the country's second-largest city nears its end.

At least 12 people have died after a suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in northern Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi officials said.

Iraqi forces have launched a campaign to retake a key area north of the capital Baghdad and dislodge Islamic State militants.

At least 18 people are dead after gunmen stormed into a shopping centre in Baghdad after setting off a car bomb and launching a suicide attack at its entrance.

As long as Islamic militants fight the US-led alliance on Washington’s terms, they will lose but they are already reverting back to guerilla warfare which will prolong the conflict, writes David Axe.

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The US military says it has launched airstrikes around Haditha dam in western Iraq, targeting Islamic State (IS) insurgents for the first time in the area as the group tries to capture the vital dam.

As the US begins to move against Islamic State forces, intelligence gathering on the ground, from the air, and through the airwaves is of paramount importance, write David Axe and Robert Beckhusen.

Islamic extremists in Iraq killed 80 men from a Yazidi village and abducted their wives and children, eyewitnesses said today, insisting the religious community is still at risk after a week of US and Iraqi airstrikes on the militants.

The European Union yesterday forged a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis, allowing direct arms deliveries to Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni insurgents. Several EU nations pledged more humanitarian aid.

Sunni militants have blitzed through the vast desert of western Iraq, capturing four towns and three border crossings and deepening the predicament of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad led by Nouri Maliki.

The leader of radical Sunni fighters who have made rapid military advances in Iraq is the rising star of global jihad, driven, Islamist fighters say, by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state.

Two bombs have exploded near a checkpoint run by government-allied Sunni militiamen in western Iraq, killing at least 11 people in the latest strike by militants seeking to destabilise the country.

Authorities say that seven Iraqi police have been killed in two bombings and a drive-by shooting in a former al-Qaida stronghold in western Iraq.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged belt at a gathering of his own family in western Iraq, killing his pro-government cousin and six other relatives, officials said today.

Twenty-five police officers were killed when a gang of gunmen wearing military-style uniforms carried out a carefully-planned early-morning shooting spree in western Iraq, officials said today.

Iraqi Security forces have stormed a police station taken over by gunmen, leaving three hostages dead.

Rebels have broken into a police station in western Iraq and are holding a number of officers hostage, officials said today.

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

THE enormous cache of secret war logs disclosed by the WikiLeaks website paints a picture of an Iraq burdened by persistent sectarian tension and meddling neighbours, suggesting that the country could drift into chaos once US forces leave.

Gunmen have raided a jewellery shop in western Iraq, killing four people before fleeing with a large amount of gold, officials said today.

Nine people have been killed and 15 others injured in an explosion outside government offices in western Iraq today.

A suicide car bomber targeted a line of vehicles stopped at a checkpoint in western Iraq today, killing eight people and wounding 16, police and hospital officials said.

ALLIES of Iraq’s US-backed prime minister appeared yesterday to have made gains in the provincial elections, rewarding groups credited with reining in insurgents and militias, according to unofficial projections.

The top al-Qaida terrorist killed in the US raid on Syria was about to stage an attack in Iraq, defence sources said today.

American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funnelled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq during the cross-border helicopter raid, according to a US anti-terror chief.

US Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan’s most violent province early today – the first major American operation in the region for years.

US MARINES are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.

Iraq’s prime minister today said he expects the US ambassador and military commander to give his government favourable marks when they report to Congress next week and predicted passage of a law soon that could return more Sunnis to government jobs.

The remains of 13 members of an Iraqi tae kwon do team kidnapped last year have been found in western Iraq, police and hospital officials said today.

A Marine was killed in combat operations in western Iraq today, the US military said.

At least 11 people were killed in Iraq today when a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Six more American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, officials said today, pushing the US military death toll to at least 2,978 – five more than the number killed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Five American troops have died from combat wounds in western Iraq and Baghdad, the military said today, pushing the US death toll since the war began close to 3,000.

US soldiers destroyed two buildings being used by insurgents in a town in Anbar province, killing six militants, two women and a boy believed to be under two, the military said today.

Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders today called for an end to Iraq’s sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for the war’s deadliest attack.

A witness in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial in Baghdad today said he survived a massacre by feigning death when Iraqi soldiers shot at Kurdish detainees.

Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques today in Baghdad, fanning Iraq’s sectarian crisis, as US military officials confirmed three more US Marines died in action in separate attacks in western Iraq.

Iraqi forces backed by a US helicopter battled Sunni gunmen south of Baghdad yesterday, and at least 11 combatants died. US troops killed five Iraqis - including two women and a child – in a separate exchange of fire.

Iraq’s prime minister has set in motion the biggest security crackdown in Baghdad since the US-led invasion, with 75,000 Iraqi and US troops to deploy across the capital from today.

A roadside bomb ripped through a bus today killing 10 people working for an organisation opposed to the Iranian regime, police said.

A pair of bombs ripped through central Baghdad just after dawn today, killing three people and injuring 21, police said.

Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb north-west of Baghdad today and at least two dozen Iraqis died in violence across the country, as politicians put the final touches on a national unity government they hope will restore security to Iraq.

Gunmen stopped a Baghdad minibus and killed all eight Iraqis on board today.

An armed confrontation between two Iraqi army units left one soldier and one civilian dead, raising questions about the US-trained force’s ability to maintain control at a time when sectarian and ethnic tensions are running high.