Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati welcomed on Thursday Speaker Nabih Berri's call for a parliamentary session during the first week of July as long as it focuses on the importance of extending the mandate of security leaders.

“I am at the forefront of those who welcomed holding the session if its priority is to discuss the extension of security leaders' terms, in particular, Army Chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji,” Miqati said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Lebanese men from al-Tufayli family kidnapped eight Syrians in retaliation for the capture of their next of kin in the eastern city of Baalbek, they claimed in a statement released late Wednesday.

“After Faisal Haidar al-Maarrawi from the Syrian town of al-Maarra and his brother Rifaat along with their gang kidnapped our son Mohammed Medhat al-Tufayli, several young men from the family abducted eight Haidar members,” said the statement.

U.S. military commanders have been told to explore ways to increase security assistance to Lebanon and Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said Wednesday, as the violence in Syria spills across borders and Iraqis face growing threats from the local al-Qaida offshoot.

Gen. Martin Dempsey said the assistance is aimed at improving the two nations' military capabilities and could include sending in U.S. training teams and accelerating foreign military sales of weapons and equipment to Iraq and Lebanon.

Former Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi on Wednesday accused Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh of supporting the mainly Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen with weapons, criticizing Hizbullah's behavior during the Sidon clashes.

“There is nothing called leaders of frontiers and Tripoli's residents will always count on the state and its institutions,” Rifi said in an interview on Future TV.

Army raids are ongoing in Abra neighborhood of the southern city of Sidon to look for gunmen who supported Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in his clashes with the military institution, amid reports that the Imam of the Bilal bin Rabah mosque might have never left the city.

MTV reported on Wednesday that cautious calm is prevailing in Sidon, except for the sound of detonating explosive devices left in the battlefield.

Nigeria on Wednesday charged three Lebanese allegedly linked to Hizbullah with "terrorism related offenses."

Five Lebanese were implicated last month after a huge cache of arms and ammunition was found in their premises in the northern city of Kano and the capital Abuja.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Wednesday “categorically” denied that he had tried to mediate with the Army Command on behalf of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir over a ceasefire during the Sidon clashes.

“The statement of the ministerial-security meeting held under President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace called for continuing the battle whatever the sacrifices,” Charbel said in a communique.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed on Wednesday the EU's support to the judicial system in holding accountable “all who resort to violence in Lebanon,” urging political factions to abide by the policy of disassociation towards Syria's conflict.

"I extend my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims, to the armed forces and to all those who have suffered from violence during the clashes in (the southern city of) Sidon,” Ashton said in a released statement.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea slammed on Wednesday the recent remarks of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on the army, saying that the institution is in need of the people's support, not criticism, during this critical time in Lebanon.

He said in a statement: “Aoun's remarks exploited the blood of the army in order to achieve petty electoral gains.”

The Ulemas of Sidon accused on Wednesday Hizbullah fighters of taking part in the clashes that took place in the southern city on Sunday and Monday.

They questioned during a press conference “the role the fighters were playing alongside the army in the Abra clashes.”