The militant Islamic State group has released a video warning the US that fighters await in Iraq if Barack Obama sends troops there.

The US military has stepped up its campaign against Islamic State (IS) militants with five airstrikes across Iraq.

This week will offer the US Congress its best chance to obtain answers about president Barack Obama’s new counter-terror strategy in the Middle East.

European leaders face calls to take direct action against the Islamic State, including in Syria, after the beheading of US journalist James Foley, but politicians are reluctant to take the lead after previous missteps in the region.

When Kilkenny get time to think about what they’re doing they’re better than anyone.

Iraq has asked the US for air support in countering Sunni rebels, the top US general said last night, after the militants seized major cities in a lightning advance that has routed the Shi’ite-led government’s army.

The United States and other nations in the Group of Seven have agreed to “move swiftly” – as early as Monday – to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

The US Congress is holding its first public hearing about plans for military intervention in Syria as Barack Obama tries to convince the country of the need to respond to the chemical weapons attack.

The Syrian civil war now threatens to split the Middle East along a Sunni-Shi’ite chasm.

THE images emerging from Syria — from the hysterical young girl to the rows of corpses — should be a turning point in a conflict that has killed 100,000 people. The deaths, if proven, demonstrate either the depravity of Bashar al-Assad — or the rebels fighting him.

World leaders have come under pressure to take concrete action after hundreds of people were killed in a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

America’s security chiefs have met to review the threat of a terrorist attack that led to the weekend closure of 21 US embassies and consulates in the Muslim world and a global travel warning.

The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend.

The Obama administration is deliberating whether to use military power in Syria, the top military officer in the US has told a Senate committee.

The Obama administration is rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels who have been locked in a civil war with the Syrian regime for more than two years, defence secretary Chuck Hagel said last night, becoming the first top US official to publicly acknowledge the reassessment.

America's secretary of state John Kerry has arrived in South Korea, as the region braces itself for a planned missile test by North Korea.

A US intelligence report says North Korea has advanced its nuclear know-how to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.

North Korea today barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North, officials in Seoul said.

The sex scandal that felled CIA Director David Petraeus widened to ensnare the top US commander in Afghanistan, an improbable drama unfolding at a critical time in the Afghan war effort and just as President Barack Obama was hoping for a smooth transition in his national security team.

A report in the Guardian 25 Oct 2012 reveals that Britain has recently rejected US requests to use UK bases in its nuclear standoff with Iran because of secret legal advice that any pre-emptive strike could be in breach of international law.

The US military did not intervene quickly during the attack on America's consulate in Libya because military leaders did not have adequate intelligence information and felt they should not put their forces at risk, defence secretary Leon Panetta said.

They were positioned on opposite ends of the field on All-Ireland final Sunday but Kilkenny pair JJ Delaney and Walter Walsh also reside at either end of the experience spectrum.

The US government is investigating whether the attack on the US Consulate in Libya in which America’s ambassador was gunned down was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks rather than a spontaneous mob enraged over an anti-Islam YouTube video.

Israel’s prime minister today urged the international community to get tougher against Iran, saying that without a “clear red line,” Tehran will not halt its nuclear programme.

The Pentagon’s top general has finished talks in Baghdad with senior Iraqi officials about ways the US might help plug gaps in Iraq’s security.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff met with Iraqi officials today in the first such visit by America’s top general since troops withdrew from the country in December.

Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, US defence chiefs say.

A US military course teaching officers that "Islam is the enemy" has been suspended by the Pentagon.

The man destined to be China’s next leader won an extraordinary welcome across Washington in a finely scripted opening to one of the world’s most important relationships.

The United States’ top general discussed an Egyptian crackdown on Western-funded pro-democracy groups with the head of the country’s ruling military council, as another two foreigners were arrested on charges of fomenting discontent on the first anniversary of Hosni Mubarak’s ousting.

The US military has formally shut down the war in Iraq, officially retiring the flag of US Forces-Iraq.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Baghdad today to formally end the nearly nine-year war in Iraq.

US president Barack Obama has chosen veteran Army Gen Martin Dempsey to succeed Adm Mike Mullen as chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff.

THE Irish presence is very strong in the US security field — as we are reminded by the recent story that US Central Command chief (covering the Middle East), Adm William J Fallon, is resigning and the acting chief will be Army Lt-Gen Martin Dempsey.

The top US military commander for the Middle East resigned today amid speculation about a rift over American policy in Iran.

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.

Iraq’s transitional prime minister called today for a speedy withdrawal of US troops and the top US commander in Iraq said he believed a “fairly substantial” pullout could begin next spring and summer.

A US army tank company commander accused of killing a member of a militia led by a radical Shiite cleric in Iraq will be court martialed, the US army said today.

An American army captain has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting of an Iraqi civilian.

At least 32 fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were killed when US followed Iraqi forces into a mosque in the holy city of Kufa, where rebels were said to be storing weapons.

More violence struck Iraq ahead of the anniversary on Saturday of the start of the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein: a deadly car bomb exploded in a southern city, three Iraqi journalists died in a drive-by shooting and three US soldiers perished in mortar attacks.

THE United States has used information gained during interrogations of Saddam Hussein to help round up insurgents and identify false leads, a senior military official said yesterday.

US SOLDIERS and Iraqi police were on high alert yesterday for more attacks to mark the start of 2004 after a car bomb ripped through a Baghdad restaurant, killing five

Saddam Hussein is being compliant but unhelpful to his American interrogators who have made little progress in gaining information as to whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or ties to al-Qaida terror, officials said today.