Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed Saturday that political consensus eases pressure on the military institution and facilitates its battle against terrorism.

Qahwaji expressed hope that “politics wouldn't involve the military institution,” his visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

The Islamic State group has shown it is prepared to use chemical weapons and is likely to have among its recruits the technical expertise to develop them, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

In a speech late Friday, Bishop said Australia had no doubt that the Syrian regime had used toxic chemicals including sarin and chlorine over the past four years.

The U.N. Security Council expressed outrage Friday over a recent wave of barrel-bomb attacks in Syria's northern Aleppo province that have left scores dead.

Russia, Syria's ally, joined in a statement from the 15-member council condemning "all violence against civilians, and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities."

A Texas man who admitted to trying to join the Islamic State group to fight in Syria was sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison Friday, U.S. officials said. 

Michael Todd Wolfe, who went by the name Faruq, was arrested at a Houston airport in June 2014 following an FBI sting. 

Some 4,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey this week, fleeing fresh clashes pitting Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State (IS) group, a Turkish official said Friday.

The refugees are from Raqa province, an IS stronghold on Syria's border with Turkey. They left their war-torn country via the Akcakle frontier crossing in the southwest.

A Turkish daily on Friday published images it said showed the Turkish spy agency helping to smuggle jihadists into Syria, the latest allegations by the newspaper accusing the authorities of aiding extremist groups across the border. 

The government had last week lambasted the Cumhuriyet daily for publishing video footage the paper said showed the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) helping send weapons to Syria early last year. 

The extremist Islamic State group fought fierce battles Friday with Syria's armed forces in a bid to seize control of Hasakeh, a key provincial capital in the country's northeast. 

"Fierce clashes continued Friday between regime forces and IS south of Hasakeh city. The regime is violently and intensely bombarding jihadist positions from the air," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 

The Lebanese army heavily targeted Friday militant posts on the outskirts of the northeastern border villages of Arsal and Ras Baalbek in the Bekaa.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the military targeted with heavy artillery and rocket launchers the positions of jihadists, who are entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern border town.

Turkish authorities have detained a female Russian student as she attempted to cross into war-torn Syria, Russian authorities said Friday.

Moscow State University student Varvara Karaulova, 19, was found in the Turkish border town of Kilis after she vanished from the Russian capital, the interior ministry said in a statement. 

The Army Command is studying cabinet decision to take all necessary measures to deploy inside the northeastern border town of Arsal to fend off any assault by militants who are entrenched on the mountainous area along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

“The army is proceeding with its deployment in Arsal, Ras Baalbek and the areas of engagement,” a high-ranking military source said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.