Syrian YPG, Iraqi Peshmerga have led a new force that retook Rabiaa from the so-called Islamic State, taking the fight to newly lost Sinjar and Zummar.

Insurgents control the area around Iraq's largest refinery, although their attacks have been consistently repelled by elite Iraqi commandos and helicopter gunships.

Militants have begun selling thousands of barrels per day of oil stolen from Iraq's traumatized energy infrastructure.

Hundreds of residents have fled to the undeveloped gas field for relative safety as the fight in Anbar continues.

After gaining new territory, Kurdish forces are providing badly needed security – but in volatile border towns like Tuz Khurmatu, they face tensions with locals and battles with insurgents.

Militants came within 2 kilometers of a major natural gas field before elite counter-terrorism forces arrived by helicopter.

A small contingent of elite counter-terrorism forces were losing their grip on Iraq's largest refinery after hundreds of Iraqi Army soldiers fled.

As insurgents have taken over large parts of northern Iraq, refugees have flooded into Kurdistan, presenting the government with both humanitarian and security challenges.

Government forces at Iraq's largest refinery are under attack as insurgents seek to extend their control over the facility.

Production levels should remain steady, but BP and Exxon have withdrawn some staff from southern Iraq in response to insurgent violence in the north.