Speaker Nabih Berri has said he holds onto the dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement despite the latest exchange of accusations between the two parties' officials.

Al-Liwaa daily on Tuesday quoted sources close to Berri as saying that the eight round of talks would be held under his sponsorship in Ain el-Tineh on Wednesday unless it was delayed for some reason.

The Syrian government killed more than 100 civilians in a series of "ruthless air strikes" on a bastion of the Islamic State group last year, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

In a new report, the London-based human rights group said some of the strikes launched by the regime in November 2014 on the city of Raqa gave "every indication of being war crimes".

The U.S. journalist killed by the IS militant group, James Foley, might have escaped but gave up the attempt so as not to abandon his friend, a former fellow hostage said Monday.

In a serialized account of his own captivity at the hands of the Islamist group in 2013-2014, Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa revealed that Foley made two escape attempts with another hostage, British photographer John Cantlie.

U.S. officials Monday denied there were any plans to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying he would "never" be part of any peace negotiations to end the brutal civil war.

Top U.S. diplomat John Kerry appeared to suggest in a weekend interview that Washington would have to talk with Assad eventually if peace was to be forged, but State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki moved to clarify that assertion.

Several militants were killed Monday evening as the Lebanese army foiled an infiltration attempt into the Bekaa border town of Arsal, following clashes at noon in the outskirts of the border town of Ras Baalbek.

“The Lebanese army thwarted an infiltration attempt in at Wadi Hmeid's checkpoint in Arsal, killing and wounded several militants,” state-run National News Agency reported.

A Chechen woman living in the Netherlands has taken her two young children against their father's will to join the Islamic State group in Syria, in what is believed to be the first such case, prosecutors said on Monday.

The unnamed 32-year-old refugee flew with her children, a boy aged eight and a girl aged seven, from Charleroi in Belgium to Athens in November, possibly using false passports after their Dutch father warned police of their imminent departure. 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday rejected any role for President Bashar Assad in Syrian peace talks, saying it would be a "scandalous gift" to the Islamic State group.

Fabius' comments came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged that talks with Assad were necessary to bring the bloody conflict in Syria to an end as it enters its fifth year.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's suggestion that Washington must negotiate with the Damascus regime was recognition of President Bashar Assad's "legitimacy," Syrian media said on Monday.

The al-Watan newspaper said Kerry's comments, in an interview recorded on Saturday, also "open the door to a new stage in political negotiations."

Syria's President Bashar Assad said Monday he was waiting for action from Washington after Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged talks with Damascus were necessary to end the country's conflict.

The weekend remarks by the top U.S. envoy were quickly clarified when his spokeswoman said Washington's policy was unchanged and Assad had no role in Syria's future.

Turkey on Monday slammed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting negotiations would have to be opened with President Bashar Assad to end the conflict in Syria.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency that all Syria's current problems, on the fourth anniversary of the start of the conflict in March 2011, were caused by the Assad regime.