The Lebanese Army carried out precautionary military operations against posts controlled by gunmen on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal and the Lebanese al-Qalamoun region, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

According to NNA, the military operation was carried out in the towns of Mar Tayba, Wadi Mira, al-Rahwa, Wadi al-Khayl and Wadi Hmeid.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa blamed on Tuesday Hizbullah for the attack that killed a policeman in the town of Damistan, southwest of Manama.

"Another policeman falls martyr in Bahrain," he wrote on Twitter, adding: "He was killed by a bomb made by Hizbullah, the terrorist party".

An explosive device ripped through a car in the northeastern border town of Arsal on Monday, leaving the owner and several people wounded.

“The car exploded near the old municipality building and the Grand Mosque inside the town of Arsal,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Lebanon needs more international help to fight jihadist forces that have launched a series of attacks against the army and kidnapped troops and policemen, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

Salam, speaking ahead of a visit to France this week, welcomed French arms deliveries due "in the coming weeks," but said the Lebanese army needed more.

The Lebanese army tightened its grip in the past two days on the militants in the northeastern town of Arsal, blocking several roads particularly after the militants targeted the army in Ras Baalbek on Tuesday.

The Turkish Anadolu Agency quoted a military source on Monday as saying that “the Lebanese army blocked all the roads between the border town of Arsal and the areas surrounding it where militants from al-Nusra Front and the Islamist State seek hiding.”

MP Marwan Hamadeh resumed on Monday his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by recounting the developments in the country following the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term and detailing the assassination attempt against him in October 2004.

He said before the Trial Chamber: “A brief investigation was launched in my assassination attempt before Syrian officials took away the files and transported them to the headquarters of Syrian intelligence in Anjar.”

The director of the department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry kicked off his meetings with Lebanese officials on Monday to resolve the presidential deadlock.

Jean-François Girault, who arrived in Beirut on Sunday, first met with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil at Bustros Palace.

Israeli troops on Monday went on alert along the border with Lebanon over fears of a military operation as a cabinet minister stressed that the Jewish State has a policy of preventing arms transfers to Hizbullah.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli soldiers were on alert mainly in the area of the Shabaa Farms.

Lebanese security forces have arrested a Lebanese man in the North on suspicion of recruiting scores of fighters and sending to Syria via Turkey, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Monday.

The daily quoted political sources as saying that the man has admitted to contacting several fighters via Twitter and sending them to Turkey through Tripoli's port.

Speaker Nabih Berri revealed on Monday that Israel has already started stealing amounts of Lebanon's offshore gas, expressing astonishment at the government’s “lack of interest,” al-Akhbar daily reported.

The Speaker told the daily that he received almost certain information from an international scientific figure that Israel is stealing Lebanon's gas from a basin near the maritime borders with occupied Palestine, and at cut-rate expenses.