Several Lebanese leaders on Thursday condemned as “massacre” the mass killing of Druze residents in the Syrian town of Qalb Lawzah at the hands of the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, as Arab Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab declared that the Druze of Lebanon and Syria stand ready to fight the extremist groups.

“Regardless of its circumstances and motives, this massacre is unacceptable in all standards,” Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said at a press conference in Maarab.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam hailed on Thursday the role of the military institution in achieving stability and security in Lebanon, while saluting its ongoing efforts to protect the country against foreign threats.

He said: “The security plans have yielded stability in Lebanon and we succeeded in defeating strife through the military.”

The army intelligence detained Thursday four Syrian nationals over links with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to NNA, two ISIL suspects were arrested in the village of Talia in the Bekaa.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed Thursday that the cabinet is the sole authority concerned with the appointment of civil servants.

Jumblat criticized some journalists without naming them, considering they have “a wide imagination.”

The Palestinian joint security force dismantled on Thursday a bomb in the southern Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the bomb was placed in a box in the camp's al-Zeeb neighborhood.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji warned Thursday that the paralysis of the cabinet harms the country's security as ministers should continue to endorse decisions to fortify the situation in Lebanon.

Qahwaji's remarks came during a meeting with a delegation from al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc Wednesday.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to announce Egypt's backing for the Lebanese army during a meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam in Cairo next week, Arab diplomats said Thursday.

The diplomats, who were not identified, told al-Joumhouria newspaper that Sisi could announce his country's readiness to assist the military institution through a grant, which would set the stage for a visit of a Lebanese army delegation to Cairo.

Lebanese and American officials gathered Wednesday in a training field in the Baalbek area of al-Taybeh to mark the delivery of more than 200 anti-tank missiles the United States says will help Lebanon's army defend its borders against terrorists.

The 200 U.S.-made TOW-II missiles and launchers, valued more than $10 million, were delivered in late May as part of a joint U.S.-Saudi effort to support Lebanon's army, said U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale. 

The U.S. Treasury placed on its sanctions blacklist Wednesday three Lebanese men and companies they are tied to, calling them part of a "key Hizbullah support network."

The Treasury placed asset freezes and restrictions for doing business on real estate businessman Adham Tabaja and his al-Inmaa group of companies, Kassem Hejeij and Husayn Ali Faour, and the company he manages, Car Care Center.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared Wednesday that the Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front has suffered a “major defeat” at the hands of his group's fighters in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, as he announced that the battle against the Islamic State group has started in the border region.

“In the past few days, major achievements were made in (the Syrian border region of) Qalamoun, and I can say that the strategic hills and mountains in that area are now under the control of the Syrian army and the men of the resistance,” said Nasrallah via video link to a conference about Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.