Isis jihadists have planted mines around the ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra, prompting fears for the Unesco World Heritage site.

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.

Jihadists from Isis are preparing a last stand in a key border post between Syria and Turkey, threatening to turn it into another Kobane.

The group's 23,000 followers on Twitter include diplomats, journalists and Pentagon officials. More than 39,000 people have "liked" its Facebook page.

Like other Western nations, Australia has been grappling with the challenge of how to deal with radicalised Muslims who travel to Iraq or Syria to fight with Isis, writes Kathy Marks.

The Syrian Air Force dropped barrel bombs on a market and another civilian area of Aleppo province, killing 71 people.

The news that Islamic State (Isis) fighters have advanced to within 100km of Camp Taji where New Zealand's 143 military advisers are based wasn't the only bulletin from the war zone.

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

Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand could not follow suit if Australia moves to strip a New Zealand-Australian woman of citizenship to prevent her returning from Syria.

America claimed a significant blow against Isis when Delta Force commandos launched a rare night-time strike inside eastern Syria, killing a commander.

At the Istanbul Peace Summit last month, Prime Minister John Key rejected Turkish pleas for others to share the burden of the flood of refugees from the Iraqi-Syria bloodbath next door.

A NZ refugee with 24 children who was killed in Iraq has been accused of disrespecting his adopted country by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.

One of the schoolgirls who disappeared from her east London home in February to travel to Syria has tweeted a picture that appears to confirm she has joined Isis.

A young Isis doctor identified as Tareq Kamleh has been revealed to be an Australian doctor who trained in Adelaide.

Actress attacks UN paralysis on Syrian refugees. The Syrian ambassador's response? "She's beautiful."

A Kiwi jihadist who claims to be fighting in Syria with the Islamic State has called for terror attacks in New Zealand.

Up to 25 New Zealanders want to travel to the Middle East to fight against Isis, local Iraqi and Kurdish leaders say.

Islamic State militants in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa have threatened to jail any young man wearing skinny jeans, smoking or with music on his mobile phone.

Campaign to raise money for the forgotten victims of the Syrian crisis raises four times what was hoped for.

A few years ago Damascus was a place of calm in a violent region.

Previous experience has been positive and benefits would outweigh the costs.

It is an image that challenges me emotionally every time I look at it, and the more I look, the more it challenges me.

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.

"As I write to you, I feel so much sadness because you stayed behind in Syria on your own. You are far away and the war in Syria has grown distance between us."

Sometimes Fatma's granddaughters want to talk about their old life in Syria. They lived in a nice house in Aleppo and went to school every day.

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?"