The Islamic State group has released at least 200 Yazidis after five months of captivity in Iraq, mostly elderly prisoners who may have been slowing the extremists down.

Cork-based Ali Raza is haunted by a childhood of expulsion and war in Iraq, writes Ellie O’Byrne

The rise of ISIS has been uncomfortable for Muslims in Ireland. Ellie O’Byrne met up with some including a 16 year old who can’t chat to friends about his early years in Iraq and Syria

French jets struck a suspected Islamic State target in Iraq for the first time, expanding a US-led military campaign against militants who have seized a third of the country and also control large parts of neighbouring Syria.

Sunni militants from the Islamic State group have seized Iraq’s largest dam, placing them in control of enormous power and water resources.

Kurdish security forces took over two major oil fields outside the disputed northern city of Kirkuk before dawn yesterday and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes.

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.

Oil prices have surged to a nine-month high after turmoil in Iraq threatened the outlook for production.

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

Barack Obama threatened US military strikes in Iraq yesterday against Sunni Islamist militants who have surged out of the north to menace Baghdad and want to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria.

Iraq’s prime minister has warned that weapons and fighters flowing into Syria are now making their way to Iraq, as a rising tide of violence sweeps across the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has again dismissed street protests against his rule as organised by extremists, described them as a temporary blip and angrily rejected comparisons with the Arab Spring uprisings.

Mortar fire and bombs targeting worshippers in Iraq killed nine people and wounded 29 others today in two attacks north of Baghdad shortly after noon prayers.

Insurgents in Iraq detonated a series of car bombs across Iraq today as co-ordinated attacks killed at least 55 people on the deadliest day in nearly a month.

A highly coordinated string of attacks have hit Iraq killing at least 36 and wounding more than 200.

Six car bombs in a northern Iraqi city have killed nine people and wounded 79, officials said.

A suicide car bomber joined by other suicide attackers on foot assaulted a provincial police headquarters in a disputed northern Iraqi city on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 90 others, officials said.

Thirteen people have been killed by two car bombs in an ethnically disputed city in northern Iraq, authorities said today.

Iraqi insurgents unleashed a new wave of bombings across the country today, targeting security forces and civilians and killing at least 12 people, officials said.

A series of bombings in northern Iraq killed at least 10 people today, officials said.

Bombs striking Shiite neighbourhoods, security forces and other targets across Iraq killed at least 26 people today.

Bombs striking Shiite neighbourhoods, security forces and other targets across Iraq killed at least 19 people today, officials said.

Insurgents killed at least 64 people in a wave of attacks against Iraqi security forces today.

A bombing near a restive northern city in Iraq has killed seven police recruits and wounded 17 as they were lining up to apply for jobs, according to a police chief.

At least 15 people have been killed and dozens wounded when militants launched attacks in central and northern Iraq, the latest wave of strikes aimed at undermining the government’s authority.

Two civilians have been killed and 25 other people injured in three separate attacks in a volatile city in northern Iraq, a police commander said today.

Gunmen singled out seven Shiite Muslims and shot them in Iraq’s north while they were out swimming in a targeted sectarian attack, officials said today.

At least 69 people were killed in a wave of explosions across Iraq today.

A wave of car bombings targeting Shia pilgrims has killed at least 65 people and wounded another 200 in several cities across Iraq, in one of the deadliest attacks since US troops withdrew from the country.

A wave of bombings killed 18 Iraqis across several cities this morning, shattering weeks of calm in a reminder of the nation’s continued insurgency.

Three separate bomb attacks rocked Baghdad this morning, killing six people and wounding 21, Iraqi officials said.

Attacks across Iraq including a car bombing in a northern city have left five people dead, officials said.

A wave of bombings and shootings across eight Iraqi cities today, targeting police and Shiite pilgrims, killed 46 people.

Bombings across Iraq killed 44 people today, striking at police and Shiite pilgrims in a torrent of violence that officials had dreaded in the run-up to a meeting in Baghdad of the Arab world’s top leaders, which the government hoped would showcase the nation’s stability.

Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 100 others injured in bombings across Iraq today in a spate of violence that officials had dreaded in the days before Baghdad hosts the Arab world’s top leaders.

A swift series of bombings and shootings killed 35 people across the Iraqi capital early today in attacks that mostly appeared to target police, officials said.

Years of conflict and violence have left an indelible mark on Iraqi citizens, their lands and their future. But it is the Iraqis’ resilience, and indeed their black humour, which strikes a chord with Political Reporter, Juno McEnroe

I’ve no idea what happened that day. I only remember a huge noise, an explosion and I lost consciousness

RANDOM bomb attacks and day-to-day violence continue to ruin the lives of Iraqi citizens.

As US forces pulled out of Iraq, Political Reporter Juno McEnroe travelled to the country to investigate how Irish funds are being used to clear the countryside of landmines

ADDING to the problem of wanton violence on the streets of Iraq are the increasing numbers of displaced families who are either returning home to lands once confiscated from them or from which they left due to terrorism.

Explosions have killed six people in Iraq, including a father and son who were assembling a makeshift bomb that accidentally detonated inside their home, officials said.

The US is abandoning plans to keep troops in Iraq past an end-of-year withdrawal deadline, it emerged today.

BOMB blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities yesterday morning, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year.