Speaker Nabih Berri has lauded the Lebanese army for confronting jihadists on the eastern border with Syria and arresting several terrorist networks.

In remarks to his visitors, Berri described the army's role as “a huge achievement that deserves appreciation and support.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that the recent successes of the Lebanese army against terrorists are due to the military aid to Lebanon and the support it is getting from across the political spectrum.

“The continued successes of the Lebanese army recently go back to military aid and the huge support that the political parties and citizens are providing it with,” Salam was quoted by An Nahar daily as telling his visitors.

A French delegation will reportedly arrive in Lebanon in the upcoming weeks to tackle the shipping of $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese military.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, a military-technical French delegation will discuss with the army command the delivery of the first batch of weapons that are expected to arrive in Lebanon in April.

A westerner pictured alongside Islamic State group fighters and dubbed "Britain's white jihadi" is in fact an Australian teenager who converted to Islam, a report said Monday.

A photo of the meek-looking youth, holding a rifle and sitting in between two jihadists with a black IS flag in the background, emerged on Twitter in late December.

A young German woman has been killed fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State group jihadists in northeast Syria, a monitoring group said on Sunday.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman said the woman in her 20s was "killed in the past few hours" in a battle since Saturday for the Kurdish-held town of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province.

A young Belgian woman was detained at the country's Charleroi airport on Sunday after being intercepted by Turkish authorities as she sought to return from Syria with her four-year-old son, officials said.

The woman, who left Belgium with her child and partner last year to go to Syria, was taken in for questioning upon her return, federal prosecutors said, adding that the police wanted to talk to her about her eight-month stay in the war-ravaged country.

Four people were wounded on Sunday in a brawl between Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees in the southern town of Shebaa, state-run National News Agency reported.

“A financial dispute between a number of Lebanese residents and Syrian refugees escalated into a fistfight involving the use of batons and knives,” NNA said.

The U.S. military's top officer Sunday defended the pace of the air war against Islamic State jihadists, warning that escalating bombing raids or sending in more American troops would be a mistake.

During a visit to a French aircraft carrier in the Gulf taking part in the air campaign, General Martin Dempsey appealed for "strategic patience" in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria.

Nine jihadists with the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, among them four foreigners, were killed on Sunday in a U.S.-led coalition air strike in Syria near the Turkish border, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll may rise as more bodies may be buried under rubble.

At least 40 Kurdish fighters and Islamic State group jihadists have been killed in clashes for control of a strategic town in north Syria, a monitor said on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that 11 civilians were killed in a government air raid on the rebel-held town of Irbin northeast of Damascus.