Iraq war

Watch the dramatic scenes as a military helicopter rescues Yazidis fleeing Islamic State forces in northern Iraq. Report by Jonathan Rugman, filming by Philippa Collins.

Islamic State insurgents capture two northern Iraqi towns and an oil field in their first major victory over Kurdish fighters, according to witnesses.

Kurdish ministers boycott the Iraq government after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accuses them of harbouring Islamic insurgents in Iraqi Kurdistan. So is peace in Iraq now impossible?

Sunni rebels in Iraq claim they have fully captured the country’s main oil refinery at Baiji, north of Baghdad.

US Secretary of State John Kerry says the US will not delay in helping Iraq defeat the Isis insurgency.

Sunni militants seize an Iraqi crossing on the border with Syria after a day-long battle in which they killed some 30 Iraqi troops, security officials claim.

Iraqi forces are gathering north of Baghdad, aiming to strike back at Sunni Islamists whose drive toward the capital has prompted the United States to send military advisers to the country.

They have been called state sponsors of terrorism – but now the United States is considering working together with Iran, as both countries try to stop Iraq disintegrating into chaos.

The scale of the crisis in Iraq has led many to wonder what was once unpalatable: would the country be more stable if Saddam Hussein had remained in power?

International Editor Lindsey Hilsum charts the origins of crisis in Iraq – from the ousting of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, through the consolidation of Shia power, and resulting in more bloodshed.

Violent insurgency in Iraq is the “predictable” result of the west’s failure to intervene in Syria, not of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair declares in a renewed call for military action.

Iraq is descending into sectarian war as Baghdad-bound Sunni insurgents encounter a Shia uprising – but US President Barack Obama says he will not be sending in ground troops.

US marine commander Elliot Ackerman tells Channel 4 News there is no appetite to intervene in Iraq but former ambassador James Jeffrey says Iraq is sinking “slowly under the control of terrorism”.