Yazidi girls - some as young as 8 - were raped by jihadists then sold, says a report issued yesterday.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has dismissed reports that New Zealand troops have already left for Iraq on their joint training mission with Australia.

An advance party of about 85 Australian and New Zealand troops left Australia yesterday in a joint training mission now called Task Force Taji.

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.

Prime Minister John Key was unable to name the head of the Islamist terrorist group Isis - but nor could the Australian Defence Minister.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made a personal appeal to US President Barack Obama for more funds to help the country push back Isis forces.

Kiwi troops are leaving for Iraq today to begin a two-year deployment working alongside Australian forces.

A 9-year-old girl who was taken as a sex slave by Isis was raped by 10 militants and is now pregnant, it has been reported.

Yazidi women released by Isis this week have given distressing accounts of their ordeals.

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

Ralph Baydoun is a 23-year-old Lebanese videographer based in World Vision's Beirut office and last month we travelled together to some of the more challenging areas of the Middle East - the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and the Lebanon-Syrian border.

I first met Reverend Harold Good eight years ago in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Spare a thought for our Prime Minister. The price of "club" membership is to take New Zealand into a war not of our making, training troops who were once our enemy.

He looks downwards and shakes his head in response to my question, "What do you hope for?"

Nareen and her daughter almost died after jihadists trapped Yazidi refugees.

Canada's mysterious and small operation has become a lot bigger and more costly since it began, writes Dita De Boni. Which could be our fate, too.

The Independent investigates how Isis jihadis govern every aspect of life within the territories they control.

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

New images have emerged of three men accused of homosexuality and blasphemy being publicly beheaded at a traffic roundabout in northern Iraq.

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....

The Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has announced it is joining Isis by apparently releasing an audio statement swearing allegiance.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed yesterday that 300 more of the Australian Defence Force would be deployed to Iraq in a non-combat training role.

Australians travelling to the northern Iraq city of Mosul without a legitimate reason face jail.

As many as one million people could flee Mosul in northern Iraq if the Iraqi Army, backed by US air strikes, seeks to recapture the city this year, aid agencies have said.

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.

Despite the forthrightness of the announcement that we're off to Iraq, much remains unclear, writes Paul Little.

Auckland peace activist Harmeet Sooden is going back to Iraq, where he was held hostage for four months.

Bad news, peaceniks. If you oppose the deployment of NZ troops to Iraq, you are gutless, a coward, at least in the estimation of the Prime Minister, writes Toby Manhire.