Four Syrians were indicted on Thursday with belonging to the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Military Examining Magistrate Judge Fadi Sawan charged the four detained Syrians for belonging to ISIL in order to carry out terrorist attacks.

The Lebanese military carried out raids in several eastern towns in search for wanted individuals at the start of a security plan that armed forces launched on Thursday, amid reports that most fugitives had fled the town of Brital.

The state-run National News Agency said the plan which was approved by the government last month, was launched in the eastern Bekaa Valley through raids in the towns of Brital and Hourtaala.

The Lebanese army enforced strict measures in the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday to restore calm following overnight gunbattles with gunmen in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh.

According to a communique issued by the army command on Thursday, the military is carrying out raids in pursuit of offenders who opened fire at the army and arrest them.

Traffic came to a standstill in and around Beirut during the morning rush hour on Thursday after heavy rain blocked major roads, trapping commuters in their vehicles.

The slippery roads also caused traffic accidents that left at least six people injured, the Traffic Management Center said.

Israel has asked the United Nations to take action against Hizbullah after the party's secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said that his group was behind a blast that targeted Israeli troops last month.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council that Nasrallah’s admission is further evidence that Hizbullah continues to operate south of the Litani River in violation of Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between the two sides.

A Syrian, who escaped from Roumieh prison in February, has been arrested by policemen in the northern city of Tripoli, the Internal Security Forces said.

Police apprehended Muhannad Abdul Rahman in Tripoli's al-Qobbeh area at dawn Thursday, the ISF communique said.

The March 8 coalition is set to launch discussions over the upcoming presidential elections to coordinate the stances of the parties affiliated in the alliance.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Thursday, Hizbullah is preparing for a meeting for the party's secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, AMAL movement chief Speaker Nabih Berri, and leader of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun.

The ambassadors of major countries in Lebanon are expected to kicked off “soon” a series of contacts with the main and serious runners for the presidential elections.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper the endeavors aim at inquiring the programs of the candidates.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Thursday that a large number of security members were transferred from the northern city of Tripoli to the eastern Bekaa valley as the implementation of the security plan reached the zero hour.

“We have transferred hundreds of Internal Security Forces' members and officers to the Bekaa ahead of the enforcement of the security plan in the area,” Mashnouq said in remarks published in An Nahar newspaper.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has ruled out the election of a president from either the March 8 or 14 alliance, saying the head of state should be consensual and avoid a political crisis in the country.

In remarks carried by local newspapers on Thursday, al-Rahi said: “I don't think a president from either March 8 or 14 would be elected because he should be consensual and accepted by the people so that he could bring the bickering parties closer.”