United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos concluded on Friday a two-day visit to Lebanon during which she addressed the burden Syrian refugees are posing on the country, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

She told the daily that the refugees comprise around 25 to 30 percent of Lebanon's population.

A Syrian member of the Islamic State group, who was arrested earlier this week, denied that he was involved in the execution of Lebanese servicemen who were abducted in the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

It said that Hassan Ghurelli repeatedly denied to investigators his involvement in the executions despite being confronted by Syrian detainee confessions who had mentioned his name in the killings.

Post-Soviet Tajikistan's authoritarian President Emomali Rakhmon said Friday that Tajiks fighting in the ranks of ISIS and other extremist organisations in Iraq and Syria would burn in hell.

Rakhmon, whose secular government is frequently accused of cracking down on religious believers, spoke in the capital Dushanbe ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, which Tajikistan renamed the Day of the Mother in 2009.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning the use of chlorine in Syria and threatening measures if chemicals are used in attacks in the future.

The measure was endorsed by 14 of the 15 council members with Venezuela abstaining in the vote.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale lamented on Friday the ongoing delay in the election of a new president, urging the Lebanese factions to set aside their interests in favor of national ones.

He said after holding talks with Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq: “There is no reason for delay and it is time to put Lebanon’s stability ahead of partisan politics.”

The European Union imposed additional sanctions against Syria on Friday, targeting backers of President Bashar Assad as the bloody conflict gets worse with no prospect of a peace deal.

"Seven persons and six entities providing support to the Syrian regime as well as benefitting from it have been targeted," a statement said.

The military chief and several top commanders of the Al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front have been reported killed in northwestern Syria, where the jihadist militia has been making major gains in recent months.

Syrian state media, a monitoring group and a local activist reported that Abu Hammam al-Shami had been killed, but provided contradictory information on the circumstances of his death.

As the Lebanese army continues to press an offensive against Islamist militants on the outskirts of the northeastern border towns, in cooperation with the Syrian military and Hizbullah, gunmen are still exerting efforts to infiltrate Lebanon.

As Safir newspaper reported on Friday that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front are currently controlling around 992 kilometers of the outskirts between Syria and Lebanon on the country's Eastern Mountain Range, with 450 kilometers inside Lebanon.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu took a swipe at the United Nations and world powers on Thursday over their failed efforts to end the war in Syria, saying they lacked a clear strategy.

Davutoglu told reporters after meeting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the U.N. plan to freeze fighting in Aleppo, which has failed to make headway, fell short of a comprehensive approach.

The military commander of al-Nusra Front in the Syrian province of Idlib was killed Thursday in an operation by the Syrian army, state-run news agency SANA said.

The agency said Abu Hammam al-Shami was slain during a military operation that targeted a Nusra meeting in the village of Habeet, in the northern Idlib province.