A military expert detonated a bomb that was found on a side road between the district of Zgharta and the northern city of Tripoli, the military said on Saturday.

“At 8:30 p.m. on Friday an army unit located four kilograms of explosives on Majdlaya - al-Qobbeh road,” the army said in a communique.

Greek Orthodox leader Youhanna X Yazigi has stressed that the election of a new president in Lebanon would create stability and help the authorities confront the regional turmoil.

Yazigi, who is the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, expressed regret that Lebanese lawmakers have failed to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose term ended in May.

Fugitive Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi confirmed on Wednesday that he left the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh ending speculations over his whereabouts.

“We only left Ain el-Hilweh to avoid the shed of Muslim blood,” Mawlawi said via his account on Twitter.

As the tour group made its way through the narrow alleys of the seaside city of Tripoli, marveling at its medieval architecture, residents stared back at a sight that for them was just as exotic — visitors in their poor, restive corner of Lebanon.

"Foreigners!" residents called out to each other as the group of around 30 Lebanese and foreign tourists made their way through the Old City's labyrinth of cobblestone alleys, snapping pictures of centuries-old archways and graceful minarets. "We put you on our heads!" coffee seller Abu Mohammed, 65, said, using a traditional Arabic greeting for honored guests.

As the tour group made its way through the narrow alleys of the seaside city of Tripoli, marveling at its medieval architecture, residents stared back at a sight that for them was just as exotic — visitors in their poor, restive corner of Lebanon.

"Foreigners!" residents called out to each other as the group of around 30 Lebanese and foreign tourists made their way through the Old City's labyrinth of cobblestone alleys, snapping pictures of centuries-old archways and graceful minarets. "We put you on our heads!" coffee seller Abu Mohammed, 65, said, using a traditional Arabic greeting for honored guests.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned the "heinous" attack on a hotel in Tripoli that left nine dead and said those behind the terrorist act should face justice. 

Five foreigners -- an American, two Filipinas, a French citizen and a South Korean national -- were among those killed when gunmen stormed the luxury Corinthia Hotel in the Libyan capital.

Gunmen stormed a hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, killing at least nine people, including five foreigners, before blowing themselves up.

After setting off a car bomb outside the luxury Corinthia Hotel in Libya's capital, three militants rushed inside and opened fire, Issam al-Naass, a security services spokesman, told AFP.

A taxi driver, who works between the northern city of Tripoli and al-Abdeh town in the northern district of Akkar along the border with Syria, went missing after he left his house on Friday.

According to the state-run National News Agency, B.Kh Taleb, who hails from the town of Ain Zahab, left his hous on Friday and never returned.

The aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Azzam al-Ahmed, has stressed that the presence of two Lebanese fugitives in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh is not yet certain.

“No one can enter the camp legally unless he gets a permit from the Lebanese state,” al-Ahmed told As Safir daily in an interview published on Friday.

Militants were plotting to target Casino du Liban in Jounieh on New Year's Eve, Le Royal hotel and other major facilities, investigations with detained suspects revealed.

Local dailies said on Friday that al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front was plotting to attack the casino with a car bomb loaded with explosives and driven by Elie Warraq, who has been recently arrested.