The U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State group must try to protect archaeological sites being destroyed by the jihadists, Iraq's tourism and antiquities minister said Sunday.

IS smashed priceless artefacts at the Mosul museum, then bulldozed the city of Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC.

Despite months of embarrassment for Egypt over a series of alleged leaks of sensitive remarks including about Gulf allies, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears to have avoided a major diplomatic furore.

The tapes, aired by Islamist television channels, purportedly revealed conversations which followed the military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 when Sisi was army chief.

Australia Sunday said it stopped two teenage brothers at Sydney Airport believed to be heading to the Middle East to fight, amid growing concern in Western countries over young people joining jihadist groups.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the two boys, aged 16 and 17 and from Sydney, had tickets to an undisclosed Middle Eastern country and raised the suspicions of customs officers on Friday night.

A French fighter for the Islamic State painted life in the so-called caliphate as a civilized place, in a video posted by the extremist group Saturday.

The IS group said the narrative of the approximately 65-year-old former army trainer and businessman it dubbed as Abu Suhayb al-Faransi marked the first episode of a new series, according to the U.S.-based SITE monitoring network.

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday its warplanes had carried out raids against oil installations held by the Islamic State group, which controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The state news agency WAM did not say where the raids struck, only that UAE fighter jets took off overnight Friday from their base in Jordan, another partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the jihadists.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the West Saturday for taking in so few Syrian refugees, while pledging to continue his country's open-door policy for people fleeing the four-year-old conflict.   

"Do you how many displaced Syrians have been received by European countries? 200,000. We have welcomed two million. What a difference!" the Turkish leader said in Gaziantep, which is near the Syrian border and home to several refugee camps.

The Islamic State group launched a fierce military assault Saturday in a bid to gain control of a strategic town in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province, a monitoring group said.

"IS has begun an offensive toward Tal Tamr and has advanced in several surrounding areas," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

Two charities have stopped funding a rights group in contact with the man thought to be Islamic State group executioner "Jihadi John" before he left for Syria, Britain's charities regulator has said.

Rights group Cage describes its work as supporting people arrested or raided as a result of the "war on terror" following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The top-ranking U.S. military officer will pay an extraordinary visit to a French aircraft carrier in the Gulf in coming days as part of a tour of the region, officials said Friday.

General Martin Dempsey was invited by his French counterparts to get a first-hand look at the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, where French warplanes are taking part in the air war against the Islamic State group.

It has become known for horrific images of beheadings and torture, but the Islamic State group is trying to lure foreign recruits to its "caliphate" with promises of adventure, homes, jobs -- even love.

Using sophisticated recruitment techniques, the jihadists have attracted hundreds of supporters from Western countries to the swathes of territory they have seized in Syria and Iraq.