Interior Minister Nuhad al-Mashnouq revealed on Friday that a security plan for the northern city of Tripoli and the eastern Bekaa Valley approved by the government would be implemented “soon.”

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, al-Mashnouq said: “The countdown has started.”

The cabinet approved on Thursday a security plan for the northern city of Tripoli and areas bordering Syria as President Michel Suleiman said a solution to the fighting and repeated attacks was urgently needed.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour told reporters that the cabinet approved the recommendations of the Higher Defense Council on a security plan in Tripoli and Bekaa valley's northern areas.

The Lebanese army carried out raids in the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday after a soldier was killed in a drive-by shooting, the military and a radio station said.

The army said in a communique that two masked men riding a motorcycle killed Fadi al-Jubaili, an army warrant officer, at around 6:15 am after opening fire on him in the area of Boulevard.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr on Wednesday ordered convicting 21 people in the case of the double blast that targeted two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli last summer.

Among the convicted were Arab Democratic Party leader Ali Eid and the head of the pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council, Sheikh Hashem Minkara.

An 11-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday afternoon as intense sniper activity was recorded in the northern city of Tripoli.

The clashes renewed after a resident from the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood was killed when unknown assailants opened fire at him near al-Ridani bakery in the northern city, according to the state-run National News Agency.

A Syrian woman set herself on fire on Tuesday in front of the United Nations aid center in the northern city of Tripoli in protest against the poor aid being presented to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

The woman has been identified as Mariam Khawli, 40.

A security plan for various regions in Lebanon was addressed during a Defense Ministry meeting attended by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji and various heads of security agencies on Monday, reported An Nahar daily on Tuesday.

Mashnouq told the daily: “The gatherers tackled a balanced and fair security plan that we will propose before the Higher Defense Council ahead of referring it to cabinet for approval.”

The Lebanese army defused on Monday dynamite sticks at the science faculty of the Lebanese University in al-Qobbeh area of the northern city of Tripoli, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The army found inside the campus 400 grams of dynamite sticks that were rigged to explode, NNA said.

The death toll for the sectarian clashes that engulfed the northern city of Tripoli increased to 27 on Monday after a man succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

Accoridng to LBCI Abdullah Minnawi passed away as 12 days of fighting pro- and anti-Damascus fighters in the country's second city Tripoli subsided on Monday.

An employee and a secretary of an agency for the recruitment of migrant domestic workers were arrested after an Ethiopian maid filed a report alleging that she was raped, the Internal Security Forces announced on Sunday.

“On March 17, 2014, the Tripoli judicial police department received a report filed by the Ethiopian domestic worker B. E., 33, regarding a rape offense,” the ISF's public relations department said in a statement.