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

Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians are running out of food and medicine in the western city of Falluja, an Islamic State (IS) stronghold under siege by security forces, according to local officials and residents.

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.

A masked jihadi with a British accent mocks David Cameron in a purported new Islamic State video showing the execution of five men accused of being spies for the UK.

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.

Iraqi forces claim that they are in full control of the city of Ramadi, recapturing it from Islamic State fighters.

Iraqi forces yesterday took control of the government complex in central Ramadi, the last Islamic State stronghold in the western city, a military spokesman said.

A wave of attacks across Iraq has killed at least 15 civilians, as government forces press on with their offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from a major city west of Baghdad.

Armed forces storm into heart of militant stronghold city of Ramadi

Iraqi troops have retaken a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad that was captured by Islamic State earlier this year, officials said.

IS militants have reduced the amount of water flowing to government-held areas in Iraq’s western Anbar province, an official said.

Iraq’s military needs more intelligence and action from international allies against Islamic State (IS) extremists, the prime minister has said.

Iraqi forces, trained by the US in recent years and reinforced with US armour, is losing military equipment to Islamic State at a staggering rate, writes Peter Van Buren

Three Islamic State suicide bombers targeted a police base in Iraq’s western Anbar province with explosives-laden trucks, killing at least 35 police and Shiite militiamen.

A military operation has been launched to drive Islamic State out of the western Anbar province of Iraq, where the extremists captured the provincial capital Ramadi earlier this month.

Brent crude rose as violence flared in Opec’s two biggest members Iraq and Saudi Arabia, raising tensions ahead of the producer group’s meeting on June 5 in Vienna.

Defence secretary critical of US bid to help Iraq fight Islamic State

Iraqi forces have started a counter offensive to try to get back control of the city of Ramadi.

Voting has begun as campaigners bid to make Ireland the first country to introduce gay marriage by popular vote, Paul O’Connell is set to say farewell to Thomond Park after tomorrow’s game, Six officers have been charged with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson has officiated at a surpise wedding. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

Islamic State (IS) militants have overrun the famed archaeological site at Palmyra, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town, raising concerns the extremists might destroy some of the priceless ruins as they have done in neighbouring Iraq.

Islamic State militants are in full control of the famed archaeological site in the ancient town of Palmyra in central Syria, according to activists.

IS militants are thought to have killed up to 500 people — Iraqi civilians and soldiers — and forced 8,000 to flee from their homes as they captured the city of Ramadi, a provincial official said.

About 500 people – both civilians and Iraqi soldiers – are estimated to have been killed over the last few days as the city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State group.

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

The UN cultural agency’s chief said she is alarmed by developments in Syria, where clashes with IS militants are getting closer to the ancient city of Palmyra — one of the Middle East’s most famous Unesco world heritage sites.

A video released by the Islamic State group yesterday appears to show the killing of two different groups of captured Ethiopian Christians by the extremist group’s Libyan affiliates.

Iraqi officials say they believe government forces have killed the last remaining Saddam Hussein henchman on the run in Iraq.

Australian authorities are looking into Islamic State claims that an Australian teenage recruit died after blowing himself up in Iraq, and local media reported that bomb-making materials had been found at his family home in Melbourne.

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.

Islamic State (IS) group extremists have lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen, women and children in Iraq’s Anbar province, officials said, in the latest mass killing committed by the group.

A triple suicide bombing has killed 26 members of Kurdish security forces north east of Baghdad while a roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.

Some 4,000 Iraqi volunteers are being airlifted to an embattled city west of Baghdad to help bolster government forces locked in a running battle with Sunni militants there.

Sunni fighters led by an al-Qaeda breakaway group expanded their offensive in a volatile western province, capturing three strategic towns and the first border crossing with Syria to fall on the Iraqi side.

A series of car bombs exploded across Iraq’s capital tonight, killing at least 52 people in a day of violence that saw militants storm a university in the country’s restive Anbar province and take dozens hostage, authorities said.

Attacks across Iraq, including a series of bombings targeting shoppers in a Sunni neighbourhood in the capital Baghdad, have killed at least 16 people today.

US secretary of state John Kerry said yesterday that the United States will support Iraq’s fight against al Qaeda-linked militants who have overrun two cities, but won’t send in US troops.

A new wave of bombings has caused carnage in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people.

A senior Iraqi military commander has said it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

A series of attacks in Iraq has left at least 24 Shiites and five policeman dead.

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.

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.