Syria's military said two soldiers were wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit near Damascus early on Tuesday, the first such attack in more than a month.

A military statement said there were also some "material losses" in the strikes and that Syrian air defenses intercepted and shot down a number of the missiles. It did not elaborate.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati revealed Monday that foreign countries are “preparing” a solution for the Lebanese presidential crisis.

“Yes, according to foreign information, there is something that is being prepared to resolve the crisis, but things need time,” Mikati said in response to a question, during a meeting with a delegation from the Press Editors Syndicate.

A Lebanese security report revealed that the UNIFIL vehicle targeted in the deadly al-Aqbiyeh incident was hit by “27 gunshots from several sides,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper quoted “credible sources” as saying.

“Security experts determined that the incident was not spontaneous and that the relevant parties in the area did not take a decision to contain the situation immediately after the incident,” the sources added.

Some parties are betting that France will launch an initiative related to the Lebanese presidential file in “the beginning of next year,” informed political sources said.

“It will likely try to reach a domestic-foreign agreement over the nomination of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun,” the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Monday.

Twenty-six inmates escaped at dawn Monday from the Jeb Jannine prison in West Bekaa, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The agency added that most of the escapees were jailed over drug trading and arms-related offenses.

The body of an Irish United Nations peacekeeper killed in Lebanon was on Monday returned to Ireland with full military honors.

Nour is raising her four-month-old daughter in Lebanon's most overpopulated women's prison, struggling to get formula and nappies for her baby as the country's economy lies in tatters.

"I don't have enough milk to breastfeed, and baby formula isn't readily available," said the 25-year-old, who was detained eight months ago on drug-related accusations.

The Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers held a memorial at the Beirut airport on Sunday for an Irish soldier killed by a mob that opened fire last week at two vehicles belonging to the U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

The attack that killed 24 year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney of Newtowncunningham took place near the southern town of al-Aqbiyeh on Wednesday night, as he and seven other Irish peacekeepers from a U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, were on their way to the Beirut airport.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday hit out at Hezbollah without naming it over two recent issues.

It was agreed in the cosultative ministerial meeting that was held Friday at the Grand Serail to form a ministerial panel in an attempt to heal the rift between the government's quarreling camps, media reports said.