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.

Iraq's militarised police forces have entered Mosul International Airport, taking over the runway amid fierce clashes with Islamic State fighters, according to officials.

Several attacks in and around Baghdad have killed at least 27 people on a particularly brutal day in the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi forces have pushed into a town south of Mosul after Islamic State fighters fled with civilians used as human shields, officials said.

Iraqi government forces backed by the US-led coalition are "on the cusp" of taking Islamic State's (IS) last major stronghold in the country, Britain's Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said.

Iraq has executed 36 men convicted of taking part in the IS group’s massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014, officials said.

Iraqi forces have launched an operation to retake the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah.

The Pentagon is moving to increase the number of American troops in Iraq in the wake of new strikes that killed the Islamic State's finance minister and other top leaders of the terror group.

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.

At least 32 people were killed and 90 wounded in two bomb explosions in the Syrian city of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iraq’s foreign minister has called on Ankara to co-ordinate with Baghdad in its military campaign against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq following accusations that Turkish forces crossed the border into Iraq last week.

Islamic State is exploiting the Mediterranean refugee crisis to smuggle fighters into Europe, an investigation has found.

Barack Obama has warned against rushing to curb civil liberties after talks with David Cameron on how to tackle the terrorist threat.

Islamic State (IS) fighters backed by tanks have captured 16 Kurdish villages over the past 24 hours in northern Syria near the Turkish border, prompting civilians to flee their homes amid fears of retribution by the extremists sweeping through the area, activists said.

Aid has begun to flow to a small northern Shiite town in Iraq, a day after security forces backed by Iran-allied Shiite militias and US airstrikes broke a two-month siege by Sunni militants.

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 US President Barack Obama has said short-term immediate military actions are needed in Iraq - and the US is looking at options.

President Barack Obama insisted today that the United States will maintain what he calls the best-equipped military in US history despite deep and looming defence budget cuts.

IRAQI authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah yesterday, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said.

GUNMEN and suicide bombers stormed a provincial council in central Iraq after exploding a car bomb outside, killing at least eight people before US-assisted Iraqi forces regained control of the building.

Iraqi forces have stormed a settlement of Iranian exiles near the two nations’ border that prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has long sought to expel.

At least 40 people have been killed and 75 wounded in a suicide bombing outside an Iraqi police station in a crowd of recruits waiting to apply for jobs.

Barack Obama ended the US combat mission in Iraq today, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war: “It is time to turn the page.”

As US vice president Joe Biden prepared to preside over the formal end to American combat operations in Iraq today few there were cheering the exit.

A string of more than a dozen attacks on Iraqi security forces from one end of the country to the other killed 22 people and left scores wounded on today.

THE number of US troops in Iraq has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion and ahead of the end-of-the-month deadline mandated by President Barack Obama.

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.

The British security service MI5 judged that Saddam Hussein only had a limited ability to mount terrorist attacks in the UK before the invasion of Iraq, according to a newly-released document.

BP’s massive oil spill became the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, based on the highest of the federal government’s estimates, an ominous record that underscores the dire need to halt the gusher.

An al-Qaida front group in Iraq declared in a statement posted on the internet today that its two top figures have been killed.

Iraqi security forces have disrupted a 9/11-style plot by al-Qaida in Iraq to fly hijacked planes into Shiite religious shrines, Iraqi and US officials said.

SUICIDE attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 42 people and wounding more than 200 in back-to-back bombings.

IRAQI prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition took an early lead in key election according to results yesterday.

Iraq’s parliament today approved the return of a limited number of British troops to the country to help protect its southern oil ports.

IRAQI militias are increasingly torturing and executing men suspected of homosexuality, but the authorities in Baghdad are doing nothing to stop the violence, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

IRAQI authorities have arrested a British contractor on murder charges over the shootings early yesterday of a British and an Australian contractor in Baghdad’s protected Green Zone.

The remains of the first American lost in the Gulf War nearly two decades ago have been found in Iraq, the US military said today.

Iraqi forces have raided a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group north of Baghdad against US wishes.

Iraq’s prime minister said today that the full withdrawal of US combat troops from cities and towns was a message that his country was ready to take over its own security, even as he appealed for national unity after a week of attacks left more than 250 people dead.

A car bomb ripped through a market in southern Iraq’s Shiite heartland today as shoppers were buying meat and vegetables, killing about 30 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

At least 20 people were killed today after a car bomb exploded in a busy commercial street in a mostly Shiite area of north Baghdad.

The Speaker of the Iraqi parliament resigned today, removing the legal obstacle which had threatened to prevent thousands of British troops staying in the country.

IRAQ expects Washington’s reply on proposed changes to a draft security agreement after the US elections, an aide to the prime minister said yesterday.

The Bush administration warned of “real consequences” for Iraq if it rejects a newly negotiated security pact.