The CIA's release of documents seized during the 2011 raid that killed al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has again raised questions about Iran's support of the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks.

The Minister for Justice has again refused to revoke a deportation order against an Algerian man with alleged links to Islamic terrorism, the High Court has heard.

A German man believed to have provided logistical support to the Hamburg-based September 11 hijackers has died, according to a newly released audio message from the leader of al-Qaida.

Qatar's foreign minister says that sanctions imposed upon his country violate international law, calling the moves by Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations an "unjust siege".

Latest: Former CIA Director John Brennan has said no country should feel immune from a terrorist attack or having terrorists use their country for "whatever purposes".

A gunman who killed a man and took a woman hostage before dying in a police shoot-out had been acquitted of plotting a terror attack at a Sydney army base years earlier, Australian police said.

Peace talks in Kazakhstan between the Syrian government and rebel factions have concluded with Russia, Turkey and Iran striking a deal on a three-way mechanism to consolidate a ceasefire in the country.

A suicide car bomber has detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a security checkpoint near Mogadishu's international airport, killing at least three people, police said.

At least 82 people have been killed in Yemen after an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition targeted a funeral hall packed with mourners.

A top commander in Syria's rebranded al Qaida affiliate who was close to terror network leader Ayman al-Zawahri has been killed in an air strike, the group said.

The United States, Russia and more than a dozen other countries have declared that Syria's ceasefire is not dead despite increasing violence on the ground.

Fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended his decision to label US president Barack Obama the “founder” of Islamic State (IS).

Not all countries in the Middle East aspire to a western-style democratic model and it is this misunderstanding of people’s needs that has led to the inexorable rise of IS, writes JP O’Malley.

A US drone strike killed more than 150 fighters when it struck a training camp for al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, according to the Pentagon.

Raqia Hassan risked her life by openly criticising ISIS on Facebook. Her friends, family, and fellow activists remember her determination to tell the world the grim truth about life in Syria. 

US officials said the US and Russia have agreed a plan for a ceasefire in Syria starting on Saturday that would exclude attacks on the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaida’s local affiliate.

US believes Russia buying time to crush Syrian rebels

The international coalition Saudi Arabia leads against Shiite rebels in Yemen has officially ended a truce, the Saudi state-run news agency reported.

Two people have died in a car bomb blast in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said his plan for combating IS militants involves targeting not just the group’s fighters but also their families.

Paris was under siege and France was shutting its borders last night after a series of explosions and deadly shootings claimed the lives of up to 60 people, causing mayhem and panic throughout the French capital.

David Cameron has hailed the apparent death of ‘Jihadi John’ as a “strike at the heart” of Islamic State (IS).

Russia continued to bomb Syria for a third day yesterday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than Islamic State (IS) fighters it said it was targeting.

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, a further sign of the rapid internationalisation of a civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe’s refugee crisis on Western support for “terrorists”, as people fleeing his country’s civil war stream towards the EU.

The sister and stepmother of Osama bin Laden are thought to be among those killed after a private jet crashed in the UK yesterday.

Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency said that the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been dead for more than two years.

The White House is in the final stage of drafting a plan for closing the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects, racing against time to resolve one of President Barack Obama’s most intractable problems.

The rise of Islamic State (IS) and extremists’ capacity to “reach” into homes means Britain faces a “very different” threat today than it did at the time of the July 7, 2005, London bombings, the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has said.

Kuwait yesterday identified the suicide bomber behind its worst militant attack as a young Saudi Arabian man. It said it had detained the driver of the vehicle that took him to a Shi’ite Muslim mosque where he killed 27 people.

Terrorist attacks across three continents last Friday demonstrate the influence of Islamic State and wide reach, as well as the difficulties of countering its use of the internet to galvanise and inspire global violence.

Pakistan has shut the offices of the international aid group Save the Children in the capital, Islamabad, without giving any reason, officials say.

Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic city of Palmyra in Syria, days after capturing a provincial capital in neighbouring Iraq, hinting at the momentum of the group, which a monitor says holds half of Syrian territory.

Syrian military aircraft have bombed the north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour today, a day after insurgents seized control of it as part of a broader offensive that has left government forces in the area reeling.

Comedian John Oliver has sat down with National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden on HBO’s Last Week Tonight for a wide-ranging interview that was funny and, at times, surprisingly tense.

Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn yesterday, killing 147 people in the group’s deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk.

An American man has told a US court that he was asked by Osama bin Laden in 1995 to kill Egypt’s president by ramming his plane with his own in mid-air.

Efforts to free a captive journalist from the militant Islamic State group have reached a "state of deadlock", a top Japanese diplomat says.

The agony of the families of a captured journalist and fighter pilot is continuing after a sunset deadline for a possible prisoner swap allegedly set by their Islamic State (IS) kidnappers passed with no clue whether they are still alive.

The US State Department says that the US Embassy in Yemen has closed to the public over security concerns amid street violence and turmoil that is roiling the impoverished Arab country.

A man accused of plotting to attack the US Congress building and kill staff inside has been arrested by the FBI in an undercover operation.