The announcement that 150 NZ Defence Force personnel will begin pre-deployment training for Iraq at Linton and Waiouru military camps has been condemned.

New Zealand troops have been given the go-ahead to begin training for a likely deployment to Iraq.

The Jordanian air force pilot burned to death by Isis extremists was reportedly heavily sedated and unaware what would happen.

Isis militants are reported to have publicly beheaded a man after finding him guilty of practicing “sorcery”.

He witnessed a suicide. He saw gangs at the Ritz Carlton. Or did he? NBC newsman Brian Williams' Katrina reporting is broken down and analysed.

After spending eight months as a captive of terrorists in Iraq, one of NZ's newest citizens says being able to call himself a Kiwi feels like a "dream".

NBC News anchor Brian Williams conceded yesterday that a story he had told repeatedly about being under fire while covering the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was false.

A Twitter campaign ran in the days after the capture of a Jordanian pilot, in which Isis supporters suggested sick methods of his execution.

Islamic State has published a list of punishments ranging from 80 lashes for drinking alcohol and losing a hand for theft, to death for committing blasphemy.

The Prime Minister has told a BBC interviewer New Zealand's military contribution to the war against jihadists in Iraq and Syria is "the price of the club".

Many girls from the Yazidi community in Iraq are committing suicide after being raped and sold into sexual slavery by Isis fighters who captured them last August.

The oil price decline of 2014 upended the geopolitical chessboard. Worth watching in 2015 will be who can recover and dominate play - Opec, Vladimir Putin or US shale drillers.

There is a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass in which Alice meets the White Knight who is wearing full armour and riding a horse which he keeps falling off.

Isis' vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control.

The father of a Jordanian pilot captured by Isis after his plane crashed pleaded for his son's release, as reports emerged that the jihadists were preparing to publicly execute him.

Pope Francis has spoken by telephone to Iraqis living in a displaced people's camp near the main Kurdish city of Erbil, assuring them they were in his Christmas thoughts.

Captured Yazidi girls in Iraq are killing themselves to escape rape and torture at the hands of Isis (Islamic State) militants holding them prisoner.

Kiwi troops sent to Iraq need a clear objective and a way out within two years, says a military academic and former army officer who has served in the country.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters claims "large-scale" military preparations are under way at New Zealand bases in anticipation of a deployment to Iraq.

The father of a teenager from Cardiff is thought to be the first Briton to have rescued his son from the jihadist group Islamic State.

The beating of the patriotic drum resonates in the proposal to send an Anzac force of trainers and troops to Iraq.

The Iraqi army includes 50,000 "ghost soldiers" who do not exist, but their officers receive their salaries fraudulently, according to the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

John Key has admitted that though any Kiwi troops sent to Iraq would be "behind the wire", they'd still face significant risk from attack by Isis supporters posing as soldiers.

Defence Force staff have begun training for potential deployment to Iraq to support the fight against Islamic State (Isis), Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has confirmed.

The British Isis killer known as "Jihadi John" may have a body double, according to a new video analysis.

Much has changed in Iraq and Syria in the six weeks since the last Western hostage, Alan Henning, was beheaded.

Would-be jihadi fighters are increasingly booking tickets on cruise ships to join extremists in battle zones in Syria and Iraq, hoping to bypass efforts to thwart them in neighbouring Turkey, said Interpol officials.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee says any deployment of soldiers to train the Iraqi Army will not be the same as Afghanistan.