U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale noted Tuesday that Washington has not given any “green light” for Hizbullah's military intervention in neighboring Syria, describing the party's involvement as the “magnet” that drew the extremist groups into Lebanon.

“I'm absolutely confident that the Lebanese army has both the will and the capacity to defend its borders,” Hale said in an interview with LBCI television.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed that only the army should defend Lebanon's borders against armed attacks, as it called for preserving Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet, describing it as the guarantee for stability in this period.

“The protection of all aspects of stability must be at the core of the Lebanese officials' interests,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Syrian anti-regime factions exchanged insults on Tuesday after a news conference that saw the head of the Damascus-tolerated opposition ask for a revolutionary flag to be removed from sight.

Louay Hussein, who fled Syria at the end of April after facing charges of "weakening national sentiment," addressed reporters Monday in Istanbul alongside Khaled Khoja, the head of the opposition National Coalition. 

Spanish police on Tuesday arrested two Moroccan men accused of using the Internet to recruit Islamic State group supporters, the latest in a string of operations in Spain against backers of the jihadist movement.

The two suspects were arrested in the Barcelona suburb of Cornella del Llobregat following an eight-month investigation, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The Change and Reform bloc warned on Tuesday of attempts to naturalize Syrian and Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon, while highlighting the burden they are imposing on the country.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting: “We remind the international community of its obligations towards providing the refugees with aid, but hope that it will not reach a point that would lead to their naturalization.”

At least 20 people were killed on Tuesday in a regime barrel bomb attack on a mini-bus stand in a rebel-held part of Syria's Aleppo city, a monitor said.

"Helicopters committed a massacre, dropping a barrel bomb on a mini-bus station in the Fardous district of Aleppo, killing 20 civilians, among them children, and injuring 30 more," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.

At least four people were killed and 17 wounded in a double bomb blast in Syria's central city of Homs on Tuesday, the provincial governor told Agence France Presse.

Governor Talal Barazi said the blasts were caused by motorbikes rigged with explosives in the Wadi Dahab and Al-Zahra neighborhoods of the city.

The lives of more than five million Syrians, including two million children, are at risk from explosive weapons used in the conflict, a non-governmental organization said on Tuesday.

Handicap International warned that explosive weapons were being widely used in heavily populated areas in violation of international law, and that unexploded ordnance posed a long-term threat.

Australia will allocate an extra Aus$450 million (US$355 million) to fight home-grown terrorism and bolster intelligence agencies in its national budget Tuesday to counter "evolving threats and technological change".

The conservative government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Aus$630 million in counter-terrorism funding last year after raising its terror alert to "high".

A Lebanese army patrol came under gunfire from Syria on Monday as it was inspecting landmines near the border with the neighboring country, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

“It came under fire from the Syrian side of the border but no casualties were reported,” NNA said.