Fierce battles between Syrian regime forces and the Islamic State jihadist group in eastern Syria have left 34 fighters dead in 24 hours, a monitor said Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 pro-government forces and 15 IS extremists had been killed since clashes began late Wednesday in the city of Deir Ezzor and around its nearby military airport.

The Lebanese army stressed that its role is limited to defending Lebanon's land and border, reported al-Mustaqbal daily on Friday.

A military source told the daily: “The army is not concerned with the battle for Syria's al-Qalamoun region.”

Gunmen affiliated to al-Qaida group al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly tried to provoke Syrian refugees, who are settling in the northeastern border town of Arsal, to join al-Qalamoun battle.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Friday, several Syrians gathered in al-Sabil and Tariq al-Jammala in northeastern Arsal, two kilometers from al-Masyada crossing, to respond to the two groups' calls and “aid the jihadists on the outskirts.”

The U.S. government is struggling to counter the Islamic State group's fast-paced online propaganda, which played a role in inspiring a failed attack in Texas this week on an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

One of the two gunmen had been in frequent contact via Twitter with an American militant from the IS group who was well known to federal authorities, according to groups that monitor extremists online.

Iran is a destabilizing force that must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, top U.S. diplomat John Kerry said in Saudi Arabia Thursday, aiming to calm Riyadh's worries.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors fear Tehran might be able to develop an atomic bomb despite an international accord being drafted which aims to prevent that.

Saudi Arabia wants to bring together the many branches of war-torn Syria's armed and political opposition to discuss what to do after the regime's downfall, opposition sources said Thursday.

The Sunni-ruled kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a main backer of forces fighting to topple Syria's President Bashar Assad, while its Shiite-dominated rival Iran backs him.

Hizbullah backed by Syrian forces controlled on Thursday strategic heights in the Syrian region of Qalamoun that abuts Lebanon's eastern border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The control of the area on the outskirts of Assal al-Wared came following heavy clashes with al-Qaida linked al-Nusra Front, it said in a statement.

A Turkish court has issued arrest warrants for four prosecutors and one military officer in a controversial case over the interception last year of trucks that allegedly contained arms bound for neighboring Syria, reports said Thursday.

The four prosecutors had been reassigned and then suspended after they ordered the search of several trucks and buses in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana near the Syrian border in January 2014 on suspicions of smuggling "ammunition and arms" into Syria.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat dismissed claims on Thursday that former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14, 2005 assassination was linked to rampant corruption in Lebanon or a rising Saudi influence in the country.

“Hariri was killed for political reasons,” Jumblat told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon during the Defense Counsel's cross-examination.

Officials in the March 14 coalition have stressed that only the Lebanese army should defend Lebanon after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his party will attack militants in Syria's Qalamoun region that lies on the border with Lebanon.

“Only the legitimate armed forces led by the army and its troops should defend Lebanon from the fire that could erupt on Lebanon's border,” the March 14 leaders told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published Thursday.