Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday telephoned Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East Yohanna X Yazigi to inquire about his health, after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Mariamite church in the Damascus Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati also made a similar phone call.

The army on Thursday handed over a group of soldiers accused of abusing a detainee to the military police for questioning, a military source and the state-run National News Agency said.

The move came after amateur video emerged showing a group of soldiers humiliating, beating and kicking a man suspected of supporting a Salafist cleric Ahmed al-Asir whose men fought troops near the southern city of Sidon.

Speaker Nabih Berri called for a meeting of the joint parliamentary committees next Thursday to study the draft-law on the new wage scale for the public sector.

The scale was referred to the parliament in mid-June after President Michel Suleiman signed the decree.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered condolences to President Michel Suleiman on Thursday for the victims of the Lebanese army who were killed in the Abra clashes, reiterating Washington's support for the military and the state.

Kerry praised in a phone call with Suleiman the army which proved to be the sole guarantor of stability and civil peace, a presidential statement said.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel vowed on Thursday to hold accountable all corrupt Internal Security Forces members, warning both corruption and sectarian divisions would lead to the collapse of the state.

“Corruption will be fought only through accountability,” Charbel told reporters during a ceremony to hand over the ISF acting chief's post to Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous.

The Army command criticized on Thursday “fabricated” videos of gunmen allegedly fighting alongside troops in the southern city Sidon, vowing to take judicial action.

“At a time that the Lebanese army was fighting a fierce battle against an armed group that was spreading sedition and meddling with the country's security... A cheap political and media campaign was targeting it,” a communique issued by the army said.

The British Foreign Ministry issued on Thursday a travel advice, warning its nationals from heading to several areas in the country that witnessed unrest, and saying the situation could deteriorate 'quickly.”

The areas include the northern city of Tripoli, the southern city of Sidon, the eastern town of Arsal, Palestinian refugee camps across the country, Hermel, Baalbek, south of Litani river and Beirut's southern suburbs.

Hizbullah vacated several apartments in the area of Abra in the southern city of Sidon, handing them over to the Lebanese army, three days after gunbattles turned the city into a battle zone.

The apartments, which lie meters from the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque compound in which Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir was a preacher, were one of the main reason for the fierce campaign launched by him against Hizbullah.

The pastor of Saint Paul's Cathedral in Harissa, Naim Khouriyeh, revealed on Thursday that a priest had received a text message warning that the cathedral will be bombed.

Khouriyeh told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that investigations carried out by security forces showed that the threat was a hoax.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees Anne Richard is scheduled on Thursday to discuss with several Lebanese officials U.S. assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Richard, who arrived in Beirut on Wednesday night from Jordan, said last week that Syria's neighbors are "tremendously generous ... but we need more countries to donate."