Hizbullah and AMAL movement are taking maximum security measures and precautions to ensure the safety of mourners commemorating the occasion of Ashura that begins on October 25.

The two Shiite parties decided not to minimize their Ashura congregations and processions despite the rising security fears, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Saturday.

Al-Nusra Front warned on Saturday that the case of abducted soldiers and policemen became a political tool that the government is using to take the Lebanese people into the abyss.

“The Lebanese cabinet is exploiting the case and will lead the country into the abyss,” al-Nusra Front said via it's account on Twitter.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri had said recently that Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's chances to reach the Baabda Palace faded away.

Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Saturday that Hariri informed Kataeb party MP Sami Gemayel that Geagea will not reach the presidential palace in Baabda.

Fierce clashes erupted Friday evening in the northern city of Tripoli, leaving at least eight army troops, including a first lieutenant, and several gunmen and civilians wounded.

Meanwhile, al-Jadeed TV said 15 people were injured, including eight troops. It said the army's casualties include a first lieutenant who was “critically wounded.”

DNA tests have confirmed that the scorched body at the raided Dinniyeh apartment is that of defected soldier Abdul Qader al-Akkoumi, the army announced on Friday, as preliminary investigations revealed that the arrested dangerous militant Ahmed Salim Miqati had been “communicating” with al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Khaled al-Daher.

Army intelligence agents on Thursday raided an apartment in the town of Asoun in the northern district of Dinniyeh, which was inhabited by a “group of terrorists,” killing three gunmen and apprehending a fugitive.

A son of Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon on Friday filed a slander lawsuit against MP Nicolas Fattoush after the latter revealed in a news conference that he had submitted an “adultery” suit against the minister.

Meanwhile, LBCI television said “the Beirut Bar Association has removed the name of MP Nicolas Fattoush from its list of lawyers,” after the lawmaker lashed out at the head of the association George Jreij during the same televised speech.

Army chief General Jean Qahwaji briefed Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Friday on the details of the latest Dinniyeh raid, which led to the arrest and death of dangerous gunmen.

Qahwaji discussed in his visit to the Grand Serail “the security developments and efforts exerted by the army to fight terrorism in the country,” said the National News Agency.

A huge fire erupted Friday at Tabet fuel station in the Mar Semaan neighborhood in the northern coastal town of Byblos, causing major damage and gutting four floors of an adjacent building.

The fire broke out while a fuel tanker was pumping fuel into the storage of the station, which is located near Saint George church, creating bumper-to-bumper traffic in the area.

A security patrol came under fire in an area bordering Syria in the northern Akkar district, the state-run National News Agency reported Friday.

NNA said the vehicle was targeted by gunfire from Syria near the town of Qashlaq.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Friday called on the Lebanese to hold onto the state and its constitutional institutions and rejected the use of religion as a cover to gain power.

“Our project is the unified state and the single army and coexistence,” Daryan said in a statement on the occasion of the Islamic New Year.