The southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh has long provided a stable, if destitute, bolthole for Palestinian refugees, some of whom have lived within its walls since fleeing their homes more than six decades ago.

But the war in neighboring Syria has transformed parts of the southern camp into a safe haven for jihadists traveling to fight there, creating districts where even Palestinian security forces fear to tread and raising tensions among residents.

Malaysia's police chief said on Monday that 17 people, including two who recently returned from Syria, had been arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Authorities in the Muslim-majority country have expressed increasing alarm over the threat of Muslim militancy in the wake of the Islamic State (IS) group's bloody jihad in Syria and Iraq.

Talks on ending the war in Syria began on Monday in Moscow but the absence of key opposition groups meant there was little hope of progress in resolving the conflict.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, is heading the government delegation for the meetings with members of the domestic "tolerated" opposition, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCCDC).

Several Lebanese truck drivers were able to cross to Lebanon on Sunday after being stranded for four days along the Syrian-Jordanian border.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), six truck drivers, who were trapped at the Jordanian Nasib crossing, were able to cross the al-MAsnaa border crossing in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

A suicide bomber killed four people outside Libya's militia-controlled third city Misrata on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The LANA news agency of the militia-backed Tripoli administration said 21 people were also wounded when the bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives at the Saddada checkpoint east of the city.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit Iran on Tuesday despite a war of words between the neighboring countries over conflicts from Syria to Yemen, Tehran confirmed.

There had been calls from Iranian conservatives for the visit to be cancelled after Erodgan accused Shiite Tehran of backing "terrorist" rebels in the face of an air campaign in Yemen led by its Sunni arch rival Riyadh.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi lashed out at politicians on Sunday, stressing that the Lebanese are suffering due to the vacuum at the Baabda Palace and the sharp rift between the political arch-foes.

“The acute dispute between the rival parties divided the country into two and obstructed the civil society,” al-Rahi said during his Easter sermon at Bkirki.

A former unionist and Australian political figure was Sunday questioned on his return from the Middle East where he is believed to have helped those fighting against the Islamic State group, reports said.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said it understood that Matthew Gardiner was stopped by customs officials early Sunday after flying in to the northern Australian city via Sweden and Singapore. 

Civilians trapped in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria's capital fled to safer areas Saturday amid intense shelling and clashes between Palestinian armed factions and Islamic militants who took over most of the camp, Syrian activists said.

A Damascus-based Palestinian official, Khaled Abdul-Majid, said the militants controlled about half of the Yarmouk camp, located on the southern edge of the Syrian capital.

A key activist in Syria's "tolerated" opposition said Saturday he cannot attend peace talks in Moscow next week because Damascus refuses to lift his travel ban.

"Neither I nor my movement will take part in the meeting in Moscow because the regime refuses to lift my travel ban," Louay Hussein told AFP.