The Lebanese army arrested several residents of the northeastern town of Arsal on Saturday a day after two soldiers were killed when gunmen ambushed a military patrol, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the men were arrested either for the possession of illegal arms or for failing to stop at several checkpoints set up by the military at the entrances of the town.

Batroun MP Butros Harb lauded on Saturday State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr for “taking the bold decision” to charge Mahmoud Hayek with the attempt on his life.

Saqr “took a courageous decision given the pressure ... exerted by Hizbullah on the judiciary by striking deals at the expense of justice and the investigation,” Harb told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

President Michel Suleiman hailed the “reasonable and logical” stance of former PM Saad Hariri backing the controversial issue of legalizing civil marriage, the al-Joumhouria daily said Saturday.

In a lengthy phone call with Hariri, Suleiman lauded the former prime minister's brave stance supporting civil marriage, the daily added.

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji decided to cut his visit to Paris short after two soldiers and a wanted man were killed in an ambush in the eastern town of Arsal near the border with Syria, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said that Qahwaji will return to Beirut on Saturday after what a military communique said on Friday a patrol was ambushed by gunmen as it was hunting a man wanted for several terrorist acts.

The al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc was over the weekend preparing the draft-law based on ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri's initiative that it intends to propose to parliament on Monday, An Nahar daily reported.

Hariri, who is also the head of al-Mustaqbal movement, called on Thursday for a small-district law for this year’s parliamentary elections and for the establishment of a senate representing all religions and sects as stipulated by the Taef agreement.

The United States is increasingly concerned that "chaos" in Syria could allow Hizbullah to obtain sophisticated weapons from the Damascus regime, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Agence France Presse in an interview.

Speaking two days after Israel carried out a bombing raid on a military site outside Damascus, Panetta said Washington was worried Hizbullah could exploit the 22-month conflict in Syria.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced on Friday that the number of Syrians who have left the neighboring war-torn country and came to Lebanon since the eruption of the conflict in March 2011 has reached 242,000.

"The number of refugees in Lebanon has risen by 20,000 during the last week of January,” a statement released by the U.N. said.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn considered on Friday the “Arsal attack on an army patrol a violation of national security and an attempt to undermine the integrity of the state”.

"Any attack on the Lebanese army is an attack on the entire nation and we will not tolerate this,” Ghosn said in a released statement.

The army announced on Friday that one of its units was the victim of an armed ambush as it was patrolling the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Arsal.

Two officers were killed and a number of soldiers were wounded the clash that ensued with the gunmen, said the Army Command in a statement.

Israeli warplanes flew over southern Lebanon Friday, two days after an airstrike near Damascus, as Syria's army chief of staff warned against testing his country's capabilities.

Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub made his comments Thursday during a visit to some military units in the country. The al-Baath newspaper, the mouthpiece of President Bashar Assad's ruling party, quoted Ayoub as saying Syria will never change its stance "no matter how much the enemy carries out provocative and hostile acts."