Prime Minister John Key has defended his angry counter-attack in Parliament after Opposition parties' criticised the decision to send troops to the Middle East.

NZ soldiers training Iraqi troops near Baghdad will not be taking a "them-and-us" view of the Iraqis but a partnership approach.

No New Zealand government should commit troops to a war zone without a clear awareness of the ramifications. In the case of the fight against the Islamic State.

The deployment of 106 Defence Force personnel to a military base in Iraq will include just 16 trainers, the New Zealand Defence Force chief confirmed yesterday.

Lieutenant General Tim Keating, says New Zealand troops deployed to Iraq will have force protection for self defence and and all forces will be armed.

Sending troops to Iraq not unethical but duplicity, anger and hatred in Middle East may crush New Zealand's efforts, writes law professor Alexander Gillespie.

The headteacher of the school attended by three British schoolgirls who are believed to have flown to Turkey to join Isis in Syria reiterated yesterday that police have no evidence the missing pupils had been radicalised there.

The father of one of three schoolgirls who are believed to have travelled to Syria to join Isis says her siblings "cannot stop crying".

NZ doesn't have a 'realistic option of doing nothing' in the fight against Isis, PM John Key says ahead of Cabinet's decision on whether to send troops to Iraq.

When Isis took over Raqqa, a wave of black swept over the city. It's turned into a grim prison for residents - with no escape in sight.

Tony Abbott has flagged shifting the balance between upholding individual rights and ensuring community protection following a report into the Sydney cafe siege.

Three British "jihadi brides" who ran away from home to join fighters from Isis were believed to have crossed the Turkish border into Syria.

Isis has threatened to flood Europe with half a million migrants from Libya in a 'psychological' attack against the West.

Militants from Isis have burned 45 people to death in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, according to the local police chief.

A New York court has heard how Pakistani man Abid Naseer allegedly plotted attacks in Britain, Denmark and the US and was part of an al-Qaeda infiltration of the West.

The film clip of Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee striding into the bowels of the $250 million Boeing C-17 Globemaster for a test drive this week was scary.

Two men charged over an Isis-linked terror plot have not appeared in court, with prosecutors warning there are "clear security issues".

Isis militants are reported to have publicly beheaded a man after finding him guilty of practicing “sorcery”.

Sydney cafe siege survivors and families gathered solemnly as Australia's parliament honoured the victims.

'We were just left there.' Lindt Cafe siege survivor Marcia Mikhael has criticised the police operation, saying the army would've done a better job.

A document from an all-female wing of Isis spells out what's expected from women living under the strict regime - starting with marriage from age nine.

John Key used his speech on Te Tii Marae to justify sending troops to Iraq after he was questioned whether it was simply to please "the family" of Britain and the US.

The Isis group's release of a video showing its fighters burning alive a captured Jordanian pilot sparked street protests calling for vengeance and threatened to draw Jordan's usually low-key monarch towards ever more direct confrontation with radical Isl

Disturbing images appear to show a man charged with having a homosexual affair being stoned to death after he survived being thrown off a building.

A suspect has been detained following a security scare that led to the evacuation of European Parliament buildings in Brussels.