Indonesia could help combat the threat of homegrown extremism by banning its citizens from traveling abroad to fight with organizations such as the Islamic State group, a think-tank said Monday.

The Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said new laws banning any involvement with foreign militant groups overseas were necessary to help stem the flow of fighters from Indonesia to battlegrounds in the Middle East.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour declared on Monday that the health situation at Rafik Hariri International Airport has not improved since food safety inspectors raided the facility in December.

He said during a press conference: “Unfortunately, the situation at the airport is still tragic.”

Iran confirmed Monday that a general of its elite Revolutionary Guards died in an Israeli strike on Syria that also killed six members of Lebanon's Hizbullah.

"General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hizbullah) forces were attacked by the Zionist regime's helicopters," said a statement on the Guards' website.

Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria's Kobane have captured a strategic hilltop, giving them line of fire over the town, a monitor said Monday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish People's People Units (YPG) had seized the Mishtenur hilltop after fierce clashes overnight.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Monday that he "vigorously condemns" the Israeli strike that killed six Hizbullah fighters in Syria.

Zarif said Sunday's strike was no surprise, describing it as "state terrorism" by Israel.

Hizbullah's Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of its slain former military commander, was laid to rest on Monday a day after an Israeli strike in Syria that killed six of the party's fighters.

The raid, near Quneitra on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights, enraged the group's supporters, but analysts said Hizbullah would seek to avoid a major escalation with Israel.

The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers on Monday carried out patrols along the border with Israel amid a high alert in the area, mainly near the occupied Shebaa Farms, a day after Israel's deadly air strike on Hizbullah members in Syria.

The state-run National News Agency said Lebanese troops and UNIFIL patrolled the southern border while Israel stopped its patrols along the technical fence and intensified them one to two kilometers deep into Israeli territory.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has said that the election of a new president requires the development of dialogue among the rival Christian parties.

The Lebanese should resolve the presidential deadlock by finding what they have in common, the diplomat told As Safir daily in remarks published on Monday.

Bkirki has been reportedly tasked by the Vatican to carry out direct negotiations for the return of Christians who were forced out of their homes in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State group.

Al-Liwaa daily said on Monday that a “major diplomatic breakthrough has been made by the leadership of the IS lately” after the approval of the Vatican to enter into direct negotiations with it for the purpose of taking certain measures for the return of the Christians to their cities, mainly Iraq's second-largest city Mosul.

Speaker Nabih Berri has accused Israel of seeking to hit Lebanon every time the country makes progress towards stability as a report said that he held contacts with top officials to contain the repercussions of an Israeli strike that killed several Hizbullah members.

“Every time we take steps forward in terms of achieving stability … Israel tries to create chaos,” local dailies on Monday quoted Berri as telling his visitors.