Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel blamed Iran on the spread of crises in the region and criticized Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over his “illogical” stance from the presidential deadlock.

“The (region's) crises began since Iran started to spread its influence in Iraq, Syria and in Lebanon through Hizbullah,” Gemayel told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in an interview published on Wednesday.

The driver of top militant Sirajeddine Zureiqat, a so-called spokesman of the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, was detained recently, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

According to the daily, the suspect, who was identified by his initials Y.A., confessed during investigation with the Internal Security Forces Information Branch to having close ties with Zureiqat.

Australia has prevented a third teenager from flying out to fight in the Middle East, a minister said Wednesday, as Western countries battle to stop the flow of youngsters to jihadist groups.

The 17-year-old boy was taken off a plane at Sydney airport on March 12 after being interviewed by counter-terrorism officers, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told reporters.

Al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate and Islamist factions launched a multi-front offensive Tuesday against the regime-held northwestern city of Idlib, a monitor and activists said.

"The attack has started from several directions, there are fierce battles," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Islamic State group has trained more than 400 children in Syria as fighters in 2015 alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Tuesday.

Calling them "Cubs of the Caliphate," the jihadist group provides intense military and religious training to children throughout its areas of control in Syria, the Britain-based monitor said. 

Syrians increasingly feel forsaken by the rest of the world, after four years of war that has killed nearly a quarter-million people, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

In a report on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria, Ban said the devastation from the fighting has left around 7.6 million people internally displaced.

Canadian airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq will be extended one year to March 2016 and may see sorties into Syria, the government said Tuesday.

But no ground combat troops would be deployed under the plan, which is to be debated in parliament Thursday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari met President Bashar Assad on Tuesday in the first visit by a senior Baghdad official since Syria's conflict began in 2011. 

Speaking after meeting Assad and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, Jaafari urged regional support for Damascus as it battles "terrorism."

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said on Tuesday that his longtime friend, slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, confided to him that he had discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against him.

“Hariri was driving his car and I was sitting next to him when he suddenly turned towards me and said: 'You know Fouad, by now we have discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against me',” Saniora told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Tunisia's national museum was forced to delay its planned reopening on Tuesday, officials said, as security was boosted around the site of last week's jihadist massacre that killed 21 people.

Hundreds gathered outside the National Bardo Museum in central Tunis, many carrying placards encouraging foreigners to visit Tunisia which relies heavily on tourism income.