An International human rights group says Iraqi militias are recruiting children from camps for civilians displaced by conflict ahead of the long-awaited operation to retake militant-held Mosul.

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday, citing testimony from witnesses and relatives, that two tribal militias in the Kurdish region of Iraq recruited children from a camp south of Irbil and drove them away to a town near Mosul.

Surrounded by smoke and flames, the sound of gunshots echoing around him, the young man crouched in the creek for hours, listening to the men in his family die.

On the other side of the mountain, another survivor peered through binoculars as the handcuffed men of neighboring villages were shot and then buried by a waiting bulldozer. For six days he watched as the extremists filled one grave after another with his friends and relatives.

A strong typhoon slammed into northeastern Japan on Tuesday, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.

Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato shortly before 6 pm (0900 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said, after moving up Japan's Pacific Ocean coastline.

Iranian state media says the military has begun deploying a Russia-supplied S-300 air defense system around the underground Fordo nuclear facility.

Video footage posted late Sunday on state TV's website showed trucks arriving at the nuclear site and missile launchers being aimed skyward. It did not say whether the system was fully operational.

An Egyptian court has ordered the release of a rights lawyer who had been held without charge in solitary confinement for over 100 days after defying President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The Saturday ruling in favor of Malek Adly, who was incarcerated on a rolling series of administrative detention orders, rejected an appeal by prosecutors after a court ordered Adly's release on Thursday.

Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria say Turkish airstrikes have hit their bases near Jarablus, a town seized by Turkey-backed rebels earlier this week.

The Jarablus Military Council says the airstrikes Saturday on their bases in Amarneh village marked an "unprecedented and dangerous escalation" and came after Turkish artillery shelled the positions the day before.

Spanish police said Saturday they had smashed a major ring allegedly providing Chinese nationals living illegally in the country with fake contracts as domestic staff so they could get residency permits.

Anti-Islam activists have staged an hour-long demonstration atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

The protesters unfurled a banner calling for "secure borders" in Germany as crowds of tourists milled around the iconic monument Saturday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian student activists have rallied to demand the arrest of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has been implicated in a U.S. government probe into a massive fraud in a Malaysian investment fund.

More than 1,000 people defied a police ban as they congregated at two locations in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, holding posters and caricatures of Najib.

In the buildup to a long-awaited offensive on the city of Mosul, Kurdish forces are seizing new territory in northern Iraq that they say will become part of their autonomous region. The moves are further straining relations between the Kurds and the Baghdad government and Shiite militias, all ostensibly allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Just east of Mosul, Kurdish engineering teams on a recent day were laying down a 3-meter wide, 20-kilometer long trench and 2-meter high berms, marking the new front line after recapturing the village of Qarqashah and neighboring hamlets from IS earlier this month.