Isis (Islamic State) insurgents faced major assaults on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria yesterday.

Iraqi forces have pushed into the southern edge of Fallujah, enduring car bombs and sniper fire from Isis fighters determined to hold onto the city.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on European countries to "step up" with stronger help to defeat the Islamic State during a brief, unannounced visit to Australian troops in Iraq.

Iraqi forces broke into Ramadi's city centre, closer to its main government buildings as commanders hope to recapture the capital from Isis militants.

The Paris attacks and the largely stalemated war in Iraq and Syria have prompted heavy criticism of Barack Obama's handling of the fight against Isis.

Sometimes historical mistakes are so monumental it is pointless to wonder what might have been.

Filmed from a camera attached to a helmet of one of the commandos, the viewer sees the scene more or less as that soldier did.

Whatever Paradise was, it will not be opening any time soon in the Taji Military Camp.

Any pretence that Russia's heightened involvement in Syria's messy civil war would focus on destroying the Islamic State has evaporated very quickly.

Iraq and Syria may have been permanently torn asunder by war and sectarian tensions, the head of the United States Defence Intelligence Agency said yesterday in a frank assessment that is at odds with Obama Administration policy.

Iraqi soldiers have graduated from the New Zealand and Australian Defence Force training at Taji Military Camp to join the fight against Isis.

The spending represents 13 per cent of global GDP and is roughly the combined value of the economies of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Spain and Brazil.

President Barack Obama's announcement yesterday that he is sending 450 more military advisers to Iraq highlights the central dilemma of his faltering strategy there.

Despite denials by Prime Minister John Key, there are growing signs that advances by Isis fighters will raise the risks facing Kiwi troops in Iraq, writes Robert G. Patman.

Five Sydney children trying to return from Syria have every chance of being reintegrated into Australian society, an expert says.

The American Defence Secretary, Ashton Carter, could not have been blunter in his assessment of the Iraqi Army.

NZ First MP Ron Mark has labelled the Iraqi Army "cowards" and questioned why New Zealand forces were being put at risk trying to train an army that did not want to fight.

The Defence Force chief has downplayed a car bomb attack which killed three people near the NZ base on the first day of its deployment in Iraq.

A former British diplomat has accused Hillary Clinton of contributing to Iraq's disastrous meltdown during her four years as Barack Obama's foreign policy chief.

Labour has attacked the degree of secrecy about the preparation of a New Zealand troop deployment to Iraq.

Labour has attacked the degree of secrecy about the preparation of a New Zealand troop deployment to Iraq.

A teenage Melbourne terrorist who reportedly died in a suicide bombing in Iraq had previously been plotting an attack in Australia.

One of the lesser-noted points in Prime Minister John Key's speech last year on the New Zealand response to the crisis caused by Isis was that "we will be looking at further assistance to meet....

If the PM handed me a gun and asked me to ship out to the Middle East to do my duty for this great land, I know exactly what I would do, writes Matt Heath.

I believe the decision to commit our troops to Iraq was made a long time ago, and was a decision our Prime Minister had to make for geo-political reasons that gave him little option, writes Dita De Boni.

No sooner was the announcement made that New Zealand was heading to Iraq, the war of words broke out.

Iraq will inevitably dominate Friday's talks between John Key and Tony Abbott - but it should not obscure progress on the vital transtasman economic agenda.

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?