The relatives of the kidnapped servicemen held a sit-in on Friday in front of the Interior Ministry and blocked the road near the Central Bank in the Beirut area of Hamra, demanding the release of their sons after more than 14 months of captivity.

The families also prevented the security forces from reopening the Banks Street in downtown Beirut after it was blocked during the civil society protests on Thursday.

The Lebanese army shot a Syrian national in the leg on Friday after he attempted to escape during an army raid on the Bekaa border area of Masharii al-Qaa, the state-run National News Agency said.

The Lebanese army carried out raids on the Syrian encampments in the area, NNA said on Friday.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter hinted on Friday that the Russian interference in Syria could make choosing a new Lebanese head of state more difficult.

"We are concerned about the effect of the Russian intervention in Syria on Lebanon. But so far it is still not clear how that would affect the internal dynamics," Shorter told An Nahar daily in an interview.

The Free Patriotic Movement began mobilizing its supporters for a mass demonstration that it has called for on Sunday after the collapse of a deal on the promotion of military officers.

FPM chief Jebran Bassil had called for a mass rally outside the presidential palace in Baabda on October 11.

Baalbek's sub-security council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss ways to cope with the security chaos that has aggravated recently in the city in light of calls on the army to maintain security and control the proliferation of illegal arms, As Safir daily said.

The meeting is expected to take place at noon and to be headed by Baalbek Mayor Bachir Khodr.

Several soldiers were injured on Wednesday in shelling on the outskirts of the northern Beqaa Valley of Ras Baalbek, the National News Agency reported.

An army position in the neighborhood of Tallet Jarash came under shelling slightly, injuring five of its members.

A meeting was reportedly held on Tuesday between Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb and Hizbullah's top security official Wafiq Safa to collaborate on finding a landfill location in Bekaa in light of the aggravating trash management crisis.

The meeting between the two men was meant to find a “security and environmentally safe” location for a sanitary landfill in Bekaa, reports said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat stated on Tuesday that he has no trouble to elect head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun as president.

“I have no problem to elect Aoun as president for the Republic as it will change nothing of Lebanon’s difficulties,” said Jumblat in an interview to the As Safir daily.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Iran to help swiftly resolve the presidential deadlock in Lebanon.

During a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Ban "underscored the need for Lebanon's presidential vacuum to be filled as quickly as possible," his office said on Monday.

Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb stated on Monday that the garbage crisis cannot tolerate any more delay, stressing that preparations to gear up the Srar landfill to meet scientific standards and reopen the Naameh landfill continue.

“The trash crisis does no tolerate political luxury. Everyone must know that if we failed to solve the garbage crisis then nothing else will be solved in the country,” Shehayyeb told An Nahar daily.