Families of nine Lebanese servicemen held hostage since 2014 by the jihadist Islamic State group have expressed concerns over the fate of their sons, amid an unprecedented offensive by Hizbullah aimed at ousting all militants from the Lebanese-Syrian border region.

Army intelligence agents on Sunday arrested Lebanese national Khodr al-Fliti in the northeastern border town of Arsal, media reports said.

Turkey has rejected the possibility of offering refuge to Abu Malek al-Talli, the embattled leader of al-Nusra Front for the Lebanese-Syrian border region, al-Jadeed TV said on Sunday.

Protesters from the Kataeb Party, civil society groups, the National Liberal Part and the Lebanese Communist Party rallied Sunday in downtown Beirut in rejection of the new taxes that were passed by Parliament to fund the new wage scale.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stressed on Saturday that Lebanon is waging a battle in the outskirts of the border town of Arsal in order to “eliminate terrorism.'

On the second day of its operation against al-Nusra Front militant group entrenched on the outskirts of the border town of Arsal, Hizbullah was able to secure gains, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Hizbullah fighters “secured gains as they caught the hills of Wadi al-Khayl and al-Qanzah following heavy clashes with the Nusra terrorists,” NNA said.

The results achieved on the first day of an operation launched by Hizbullah against militants on both sides of the country's border with Syria, indicate that the “battle could reach fruition in a time period shorter than anticipated,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump will meet Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Washington next week for talks on issues including refugees and combating terrorism, the White House announced in a statement.

Analysts also anticipate US aid will be high on the agenda of the July 25th talks at the White House.

Ambassador Christina Lassen, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, held talks Friday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and stressed that the Lebanese Armed Forces and other state security and justice institutions are the “sole providers of security” in Lebanon.

Lassen's remarks came hours after Hizbullah launched a major operation in the outskirts of the border town of Arsal to oust jihadist militants from the area.

Kuwaiti Ambassador to Lebanon Abdul Al al-Qinai on Friday handed Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil a letter containing a warning of a possible reevaluation of ties between the two countries in connection with an alleged Hizbullah role in the case of the so-called al-Abdali terror cell, media reports said.