Fall of Ramadi raises questions about strategy of avoiding using ground troops

Militants’ Anbar advance gives more ammunition to Iraq premier’s rivals

Rapid growth of Islamic State has astonished observers

The Obama administration weakened its hand by delaying its response in Iraq

The time of rapid conquest may be over, but nobody thinks IS is beaten

US president says his administration placed too much trust in the Iraqi military

Analysis: Airstrikes are of limited value if the US can't rely on local troops

One of few witness accounts emerges of massacre of Iraqi soldiers at ex-US base in Tikrit

Review: Patrick Cockburn’s book about Isis and the new Sunni uprising examines how the West got it wrong

Pentagon officials say militants ‘beyond a terrorist group’ and may take years to defeat

US expands reach of air strikes to help wrest control of areas seized by Islamic State fighters

Barack Obama promised a new US approach to the region, but he has moved little from the policies of George W Bush. The superpower is becoming embroiled abroad once more

Broadcaster says Haider al-Abadi was in charge of company which serviced its elevators

Moderate tasked with forming inclusive government

Islamic State faces down Kurdish fighters and targets country’s dams

Some of the dead, all men aged 25 to 40, were blindfolded and had their hands bound

Iraq’s prime minister says no one in the country or neighbouring countries is safe

Formerly shunned by the US, Chalabi is seen as a potentially unifying force

Al-Qaeda off-shoot calls on factions to pledge allegiance to ‘Islamic State’

Party leaders pursue talks that could end prime minister Maliki’s divisive rule

PM calls for forces to reconcile but says inclusive coalition would go against election results

Tánaiste says Ireland has pledged €200,000 in emergency aid for those displaced by violence

Sunni fighters expand military offensive in western province

President insists move will not lead to a return of US combat troops to Iraq

Insurgents broke through perimeter fence of Baiji oil refinery, say witnesses

History of two ethnic groups marred by years of bloodshed

Prospect of unthinkable co-operation has split two of most hawkish Republicans

White House, Pentagon at odds with secretary of state on possible military co-operation

Photographs on a militant web site show the bodies of 170 soldiers

Defense secretary Hagel orders move as Obama considers options for intervention

Tikrit occupied with little resistance following capture of Mosul

After four days of fighting loyalist troops forced into retreat

Prime minister asks parliament to declare state of emergency

Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki the frontrunner to form coalition government

Election to be held amid increasing bloodshed and sectarian violence

Iraqi insurgents battle government forces

Militants occupy much of the Iraqi city at centre of US ’surge’