At some stage, a vigorous and viable response to the threat posed by the Islamic State was always going to be necessary.

A British extremist who is one of the suspects in the murder of James Foley is the son of an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist awaiting trial.

This weekend large numbers of Isis jihadists were trying to secure the border area, pushing northwards in armoured trucks looted from abandoned Iraqi military bases.

British and US counterterrorism analysts believe one of the Britons bears a resemblance to the jihadist who beheaded Foley.

Obama undeterred as air strikes continue even though jihadists say they will execute more US journalists

A secret, failed mission by the United States military to rescue American hostages, including the murdered journalist James Foley, has been described in full to the Daily Telegraph.

David Cameron has said that it is "increasingly likely" that a British jihadist beheaded American journalist James Foley

Hundreds of Yazidi women who were captured by Islamic extremists are being subjected to deliberate attempts to co-opt them into service as the wives of fighters.

Isis has used military equipment seized from Iraq in its biggest challenge yet to Assad regime forces.

ISIS has launched a series of attacks across Syria, using military equipment seized from Iraq in its biggest concerted challenge yet to Assad regime forces.

A Kiwi with links to al-Qaeda has taken up arms in Syria and says he will fight until he becomes a martyr.

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.

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

The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and the number of people needing urgent help has reached 10.8 million.

Prime Minister John Key says the Government "lost contact" with a New Zealander who is believed to have been killed fighting in Syria.

A New Zealander has been killed while fighting in Syria - the first Kiwi casualty in the civil war.

Why would anyone believe Seymour Hersh?

The Syrian conflict encroached threateningly on Nato's eastern frontiers yesterday when Turkey shot down an Assad regime fighter jet it said had crossed into its territory.

Imagine you have a young child whose legs were amputated because the hospital didn't have the proper equipment to treat them.

Behind a closed curtain a Syrian man in his mid-30s is preparing himself and his 3-year-old daughter for an onslaught.

Syrian Government troops have seized the last rebel stronghold on the border with Lebanon.

A disturbing video put out by Save The Children has shown what Syria's civil war and refugee crisis would look like if it was set in the West.

Gruesome images have emerged on Twitter that appear to show a Syrian militant group posting live updates as they cut off the hand of a suspected thief.

What's happening in Syria today is an abomination, one that the world is watching coldly from a distance, writes Professor Stephen Hawking.

Six hundred days had passed under a punishing siege in the ravaged Old Quarter in Homs. It was the sixth day in a rebel-held area cut off by government troops.

The Government may well have acted beyond the law in cancelling the passports of New Zealanders intending to join rebel groups fighting the Assad regime.