State Security police arrested a Syrian man in the Aley district on Friday on accusation of helping to smuggle Syrian nationals into Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.

The suspect, who was identified as Fayez Hmeid, was accused of smuggling people through illegal crossings between Lebanon and Syria in return for sums of money, NNA said.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said on Friday that a decision to make displaced Syrians return home must not be linked to any events happening in Syria, as he pointed out that contacts with the Syrian regime to that end are "not binding nor prohibited.”

Contacts with US and Russian sides, with regard to the situation on the Lebanese border, are underway to pave the way for the “international coalition to provide an air cover for the Lebanese army's upcoming battle against the Islamic State group” on the outskirts of the border towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Al-Qaida's former Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front on Thursday handed over five Hizbullah captives to the Lebanese party as part of a ceasefire agreement that also involved the evacuation of thousands of militants and refugees from northeast Lebanon to Syria.

The five captives – Ahmed Mezher, Moussa Kourani, Hassan Taha, Mohammed Mahdi Shoaib and Mohammed Jawad Yassine – were handed over at the al-Saan crossing in Syria's central Hama province.

Minister of Information Melhem Riachi launched on Thursday a media campaign devised to mitigate the growing tension in the Lebanese community as the result of hosting scores of Syrian refugees.

"There is a problem which we need to resolve. We need to prevent tension between the Lebanese people and the Syrian refugees,” said Riachi in a press conference he held in the presence of UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag.

A steam turbine at the Zouk Thermal Power Plant north east of Beirut exploded on Thursday killing one of the plant's engineers, the National News Agency reported.

“The explosion had seriously injured an engineer who was identified as Toni Jarjoura,” it added.

All eyes turn to the army's expected battle to eliminate the Islamic State group militants from the border towns of al-Qaa and Ras Baablek, after the evacuation of Arsal's outskirts from militants of al-Nusra, media reports said.

A senior military source told al-Joumhouria daily on Thursday that “the Ninth Brigade of the Lebanese army expanded its deployment in the direction of Wadi Hmayyed area and the amusement park,” but added that “the wide deployment in the outskirts and the border between Arsal and Syria does not mean that the mission has begun. It needs some more time.”

Kataeb MP Elie Marouni stressed on Wednesday that the battles on the outskirts of Arsal against Syria's al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front terrorists should have been led by the command of the Lebanese army instead of Hizbullah.

"The Lebanese state was absent from those battles, the war and peace decision was in Hizbullah's hand," the lawmaker said in an interview with al-Fajr radio station.

Security forces foiled on Wednesday an attempt to smuggle more than 4 million Captagon pills that were planned to be shipped outside Lebanon, the Internal Security Forces said in a statement.

Head of the Change Movement Elie Mahfoud on Wednesday said that Nusra Front's leader in the Syrian Qalamoun mountain region Abu Malek al-Talli should have been “executed on gallows” instead of letting him “negotiate” his escape to Syria.