The Cabinet on Thursday stressed its keenness on Lebanon's ties with Kuwait in connection with a Kuwaiti letter of protest over alleged Hizbullah involvement in a terror cell in the Gulf emirate, as some ministers objected against a decision to replace the head of the State Shura Council, Judge Shukri Sader.

Youth and Sport Minister Mohammed Fneish of Hizbullah told the Lebanese cabinet on Thursday that Kuwait's accusations against Hizbullah in the case of the so-called al-Abdali terrorist cell are “baseless.”

Minister of Information Melhem Riachi launched on Thursday a media campaign devised to mitigate the growing tension in the Lebanese community as the result of hosting scores of Syrian refugees.

"There is a problem which we need to resolve. We need to prevent tension between the Lebanese people and the Syrian refugees,” said Riachi in a press conference he held in the presence of UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag.

A steam turbine at the Zouk Thermal Power Plant north east of Beirut exploded on Thursday killing one of the plant's engineers, the National News Agency reported.

“The explosion had seriously injured an engineer who was identified as Toni Jarjoura,” it added.

All eyes turn to the army's expected battle to eliminate the Islamic State group militants from the border towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baablek, after the evacuation of Arsal's outskirts from militants of al-Nusra, media reports said.

A senior military source told al-Joumhouria daily on Thursday that “the Ninth Brigade of the Lebanese army expanded its deployment in the direction of Wadi Hmayyed area and the amusement park,” but added that “the wide deployment in the outskirts and the border between Arsal and Syria does not mean that the mission has begun. It needs some more time.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Wednesday that Hizbullah has “achieved something” in its win over al-Nusra Front in Arsal's outskirts, shortly after buses carrying militants, their families and other refugees began evacuating the area as part of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Hizbullah.

Around 800 employees will be laid off in the court-ordered closure of a major Israeli ammonia storage facility previously threatened by Hizbullah, the owners announced Wednesday.

The head of the pharmacy department at one of Lebanon's major state-run hospitals has been sacked by the General Disciplinary Council for stealing a large quantity of health ministry-donated cancer medicines from the hospital and selling them for hundreds of millions of Lebanese pounds, state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday.

Kataeb MP Elie Marouni stressed on Wednesday that the battles on the outskirts of Arsal against Syria's al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front terrorists should have been led by the command of the Lebanese army instead of Hizbullah.

"The Lebanese state was absent from those battles, the war and peace decision was in Hizbullah's hand," the lawmaker said in an interview with al-Fajr radio station.

Security forces foiled on Wednesday an attempt to smuggle more than 4 million Captagon pills that were planned to be shipped outside Lebanon, the Internal Security Forces said in a statement.