German police Tuesday arrested one of the country's most prominent Islamist preachers on charges of supporting a "terrorist group" fighting in Syria.

The man, German citizen Sven Lau, 35, made headlines last year by organizing a vigilante "Sharia Police" group that patrolled German streets seeking to enforce Islamic law.

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh paid a visit over the weekend to his ally and personal friend Syrian President Bashar Assad, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

It said that the meeting was held on Sunday and that the MP “had returned to Lebanon very satisfied with the talks.”

The United Nations aid chief on Monday condemned attacks on civilians in and near the Syrian capital as "unacceptable," a day after more than 50 were killed.

"Such indiscriminate attacks are unacceptable," Stephen O'Brien said in a press conference concluding a three-day visit to Syria.

Damascus has reportedly demanded that Lebanese authorities release from custody Hannibal Gadhafi, the son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Monday.

Lebanese authorities received the request to release Hannibal, who was kidnapped in Syria by a Syrian gang at the behest of Lebanese powers, said Lebanese sources to the daily.

An Arab who served in the Israeli army has joined the Islamic State group in Syria, the first soldier to do so, the Shin Bet domestic security agency said Sunday.

"It is the first time that a soldier in the Israeli army has joined the Islamic State," the agency said in a statement.

At least 45 civilians were killed Sunday in heavy bombardment of a besieged Syrian rebel stronghold east of Damascus that also struck a school, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rockets fired by regime forces rained down on the towns of Douma, Harasta, Saqba and Arbin in the opposition-held Eastern Ghouta region. 

Babylonia has no regrets about leaving behind her two children and her job as a hairdresser to join a Christian female militia battling against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The fierce-looking 36-year-old in fatigues from the Syriac Christian minority in the northeast believes she is making the future safe for her children.

Head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun rejected the recent reports that spoke of a regional or international settlement to end the political and presidential deadlock in Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

His visitors quoted him as saying however: “We cannot separate the Lebanese file from the situation in Syria.”

With international pressure growing for a political solution to Syria's war, opposition groups appear to have resigned themselves to the idea that Bashar Assad cannot be removed by force.

Syrian political and armed opposition factions agreed Thursday at unprecedented talks in Riyadh to negotiate with Assad, but insisted he must step down before any political transition begins.

At least 26 civilians have been killed in three suicide car bombings claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group in northeastern Syria's Hasakeh province, a monitor said Friday.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said the Thursday night attacks on the town of Tal Tamr wounded at least 120 people and warned that the toll could rise further.