Dozens of Iraqis crowding a Baghdad street fought to glimpse the red-haired man in a glass coffin, hoping to witness the end of a long-feared member of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The furore over the dead man -- who might be Saddam's deputy Izzat al-Duri, though his identity has still not been determined -- is yet another sign of the influence the dictator exercises in Iraq more than 12 years after his overthrow.

Lebanon's land exports to Gulf markets have been choked off, leaving millions of dollars in goods stranded after the closure of a vital crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border last month.

The Nasib border point was the last remaining gateway for Lebanese truck drivers transporting agricultural and industrial products to Iraq and Gulf countries.

U.S.-led air strikes targeting the Islamic State group killed at least 52 civilians in a village in northern Syria, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

"Air strikes by the coalition early on Friday on the village of Birmahle in Aleppo province killed 52 civilians," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hizbullah will not tackle any internal Lebanese affair until it the end of the battle of Syria's al-Qalamun region, reported al-Jadeed television on Saturday.

An informed source said that “it is out of the question for Hizbullah to address any issue before the battle is resolved.”

The Syrian capital's tiny tourist train is returning puffs of hope to a city encircled by war with short trips to the greener suburbs of Damascus. 

The train, whose large yellow wagon and leather seats can hold 100 people, had stopped running since the 2011 outbreak of Syria's conflict.

Syria's army launched an offensive Friday against rebel groups in a bid to strengthen its control in the northwest Latakia province, a bastion of the regime, a monitor said.

After a series of losses in neighboring Idlib province, the army is fortifying its positions to preempt potential rebel attacks on Latakia, home to the small Alawite religious community from which President Bashar Assad hails.

A battle for Syria's border region of al-Qalamun is imminent as Hizbullah and the Syrian army are making the final preparations for the fight, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday.

A high-ranking March 8 camp official told the daily: “The battle of al-Qalamun is very, very imminent and it will be very big.”

The head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition called on the United States Thursday to help set up safe havens inside Syria in areas under rebel control.

Meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department, coalition president Khaled Khoja thanked the United States for giving more than $3 billion in aid to the Syrian people since the outbreak of the war in 2011.

Syria and Iran have agreed to "intensify efforts to fight terrorism," Syria's defense minister said in Tehran, after a series of government defeats at the hands of rebel forces.

Defense Minister General Fahd al-Freij, quoted by state news agency SANA, said key allies Damascus and Tehran were on the same page on how to tackle the fight against anti-government rebels.

Nearly 150 Syrian soldiers have been besieged inside a hospital in Jisr al-Shughur since opposition forces including an Al-Qaida affiliate seized the town last week, a monitor said Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that separately another 200 people -- regime forces and their families, captured from Jisr al-Shughur and its surroundings in the northwestern province of Idlib -- were being held hostage.