The Iraqi Government has asked for New Zealand's help to fight the Islamic State by describing the battle as World War III.

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.

He undertook a dangerous 10-month journey to find his teenage son in Syria. Now a father is returning to help other families track their youngsters.

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.

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.

The father of a teenager from Cardiff is thought to be the first Briton to have rescued his son from the jihadist group Islamic State.

The British Isis killer known as "Jihadi John" may have a body double, according to a new video analysis.

British journalist and Islamic State (Isis) group hostage John Cantlie says in a newly released propaganda video he is likely to suffer the same fate as other US and UK hostages, who were beheaded.

Much has changed in Iraq and Syria in the six weeks since the last Western hostage, Alan Henning, was beheaded.

UK has received reports that notorious terrorist accused of killing two British hostages has been injured in an airstrike.

Footage of boy braving sniper fire to rescue girl was shot with actors on Gladiator set in Malta to raise plight of children in warzones.

By the time the boys were returned to their parents, their jihadist kidnappers had achieved their goal: loyalty to the Islamic State (Isis).

A 14-year-old boy suspected of planning a series of bombings in Vienna was reported yesterday to have been offered US$25,000 by Isis to carry out the attacks and claims that two other youths recruited in the same way remain at large.

The second of three brothers who travelled to Syria to join forces seeking the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad has been killed in fighting, his father has confirmed.

Keith Locke writes: New Zealanders are right to be concerned about the rise of the Islamic State (Isis), but our best contribution would be to provide more humanitarian support.