Australia is considering joining the United States in a limited military operation to rescue as many as 30,000 Iraqi refugees trapped on a barren mountain in the north.

America is to supply weapons directly to Kurdish fighters in Iraq for the first time, to help the lightly armed forces in the north push back jihadist rebels, assisted by US air power.

US air strikes are boosting Kurdish morale as they hit Isis fighters, and a road is now open for thousands of Yazidis cut off in the mountains.

Up to 150,000 desperate refugees were still isolated on a barren stretch of mountain in Iraq, surrounded by Islamic extremists despite a major international intervention.

Qantas has reassured passengers it's still safe to fly over Iraq, despite network partner Emirates' deciding to steer clear of the conflict-torn nation.

Kurdish leaders accuse Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of being hysterical and unbalanced, while he says the Kurdish capital, Erbil, is a centre for the Islamic State (Isis) and adherents of Saddam Hussein.

Twin sisters have fled their UK home in the middle of the night and flown to Istanbul to join ISIS fighters in Syria, it's feared.

Smoke billows up, trailing thick and black across the sky. Flames flicker from inside a scorched Peshmerga base.

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

Iraq has bought used fighter jets from Russia and Belarus to battle Islamist militants after delays by the US to deliver planes.

An ancient temple that featured in the film 'The Exorcist' has fallen into the hands of jihadists who have taken over northern Iraq.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Baghdad last night on a surprise trip to push for Iraqi unity and stability, as Sunni militants advanced in west Iraq after security forces retreated.

Islamists leading the jihadist advance in Iraq are using the World Cup to seek recruits and spread their propaganda via social media, according to reports.

In a short amount of time it's overtaken al-Qaida as the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world. So who is behind Isis?

Isis says its men have been ordered not to bother local people if they are Sunni, but in many places they are imposing their puritanical social norms in the towns they have captured.

The United States should launch targeted military attacks against an emerging "terrorist army" in Iraq if the security of the West is jeopardised, the former head of coalition forces in the country said yesterday.

The US has told senior Iraqi officials that their Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, must leave office if it is to intervene militarily to stop the advance of Sunni extremists.

Heavy fighting was continuing around Iraq's main oil refinery in the city of Baiji, 400km north of Baghdad, where Islamists first tried to gain control last week.

It was once the emblem of United States military success in Iraq - the city where American forces defeated their adversaries twice.

The CIA and other spy agencies are scrambling to close intelligence gaps as they seek to support possible military or covert action against ISIS.

The Sunni revolt led by Isis shock troops is getting ever closer to Baghdad, amid fears the capital itself might soon be engulfed by the violence.

Escalating violence in Iraq threatens to unleash an oil price spike that would put an end to the greatest period of price stability for nearly half a century, BP's chief economist has warned.

Iraq is breaking up, with Shia and ethnic minorities fleeing massacres as a general Sunni revolt, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) sweeps through northern Iraq.

Iraq's war of sectarian vengeance has its first pictures of record: images that show Sunni extremist fighters massacring army soldiers.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was criticised over a claim that the current generation of political leaders is to blame for the violence engulfing Iraq.