New Zealand troops are preparing for a two-year tour in Iraq to help the fight against Islamic State. This is what they are up against.

The headteacher of the school attended by three British schoolgirls who are believed to have flown to Turkey to join Isis in Syria reiterated yesterday that police have no evidence the missing pupils had been radicalised there.

The police and intelligence agencies faced demands for an inquiry over how three young British schoolgirls were able to head for Syria.

Tanks, drones and planes joined hundreds of Turkish soldiers in a night raid into Isis-occupied Syria to evacuate the tomb of a revered Ottoman figure.

The father of one of three schoolgirls who are believed to have travelled to Syria to join Isis says her siblings "cannot stop crying".

When Isis took over Raqqa, a wave of black swept over the city. It's turned into a grim prison for residents - with no escape in sight.

Three British "jihadi brides" who ran away from home to join fighters from Isis were believed to have crossed the Turkish border into Syria.

There is no crime of war, nor crime against humanity that they have not committed, writes Alexander Gillespie. But what is NZ's risk in getting involved?

They're being lured with promises of reclaiming a lost Islamic empire. But foreign fighters for Isis often in up on the front lines, or as suicide bombers.

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

Governments increasingly view human rights as "a luxury" they can ill afford, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

Kurdish militias claimed to have driven Isis (Islamic State) jihadists from the Syrian town of Kobane, after an intense four-month battle that killed thousands but captured the world's imagination.

An Australian politician is under investigation after allegedly travelling to Syria to join Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamist extremists.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has condemned the killing of up to 30 civilians in Eastern Ukraine over the weekend and called on Russia to intervene.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully is to travel to Jordan to discuss the crisis in Syria and the on-going threat of the Islamic State terror group.

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".

A Syrian asylum-seeker who piloted nearly 770 illegal migrants on board a cargo ship to Italy has described how he was appointed as the "captain" of the ship by a trafficking gang.

Nearly 1000 refugees were safely brought ashore in Italy yesterday after being abandoned by suspected smugglers on a merchant ship.

A Kiwi jihadist who claims to be fighting in Syria with Isis has been mistakenly broadcasting his exact location after forgetting to turn off his phone's tracking function.

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.

A man accused of obtaining a New Zealand passport as he prepared to fight in Syria will appear in an Australian court today.

A 15-year-old was prevented from joining Isis by British police who hauled her off a plane at Heathrow just as it was due to take off.

Peter Kassig, the American aid worker murdered by Isis (Islamic State) in Syria, may have been killed by a gunshot wound rather than beheading, analysis has suggested.

Intelligence agencies believe a teenager and her 20-year-old friend have become the first Australian women to join terrorists in Syria and offer themselves as jihadi brides.

I was in Normandy, talking to the former neighbours of a French jihadist last seen slitting the throat of a Syrian captive in an Islamic State (Isis) militant video.