Lawyers

• Kurdish forces seize Iraq's Sinjar town from Islamic State

  Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by U.S. air strikes seized the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State on Friday, a Reuters witness said, in one of the most significant counter-attacks since the militants swept through the north last year.

• Islamic State figures killed in air strike; Baghdadi not believed among them

  Eight senior figures from Islamic State were killed in an air strike while meeting in a town in western Iraq, but the group's reclusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did not appear to be among them, residents of the town and hospital sources said.

• Saddam's former army is secret of Baghdadi's success

  A year after declaring his caliphate, it is clear that the secret of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's success is the army and state he has built from the remnants of Saddam Hussein's military, and the allegiance he has won or coerced from alienated Sunni Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and beyond.

• Islamic State ransacks Assyrian capital as Iraq appeals for help

  Islamic State militants have desecrated another ancient Iraqi capital, the government said on Wednesday, razing parts of the 2,700-year-old city of Khorsabad famed for its colossal statues of human-headed winged bulls.

• Chad soldiers killed as Boko Haram lose Nigerian towns

  About ten Chadian soldiers died in fighting to free two towns in northern Nigeria previously held by Boko Haram, the first gains against the militants made in a joint offensive launched with Niger at the weekend, military sources said on Monday.

• Islamic State beheads four men for blasphemy in Syria: monitor

  Islamic State's self-declared police force in western Syria decapitated four men after accusing them of blasphemy, a rights group monitoring the Syrian conflict said on Saturday.

• Lebanon detains wife of Islamic State leader

  The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials said on Tuesday, in a setback to the group as it comes under increased military pressure.

• Bulgaria charges radical imam, six others with supporting Islamic State

  A Bulgarian imam and six others detained during a special operation by security forces earlier this week have been charged with supporting the ultra-radical militant group Islamic State, Bulgarian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

• Who runs the militant group Islamic State?

  Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim militant group, has seized a third of Syria and large areas of Iraq and this year proclaimed a caliphate across the two countries in the heart of the Middle East.