France will deploy six Mirage fighter jets to Jordan as it steps up attacks against the Islamic State group in Iraq, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.

"French air forces will be reinforced with six Mirages to be stationed in Jordan," Le Drian told parliament.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday that "close to 50" French citizens have been killed fighting alongside jihadists in Syria.

A government source told AFP the precise number, as of Monday, was estimated at 49.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday expressed frustration that the U.S. and its allies were not responding to conditions set for his country to play a greater role in the coalition against militants in Syria.

His complaint came as a U.S. special presidential envoy, John Allen, visited Ankara for previously unannounced talks with Turkish officials.

MP Marwan Hamadeh told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday how relations between slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad broke down over the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term in 2004.

Hamadeh, on his third day of testimony, said he met with Hariri at the residence of Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat in Beirut's Clemenceau area in August 2004 upon the former premier's return to the Lebanese capital from a meeting with Assad.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed on Wednesday that the upcoming year in Iraq and Syria will witness tough security developments, which will have severe repercussions on Lebanon.

“We are ready to face all the possible scenarios and the security forces are on full alert,” Mashnouq said in comments to As Safir newspaper.

Not long ago chef Abu Wassim saw himself as king of the shawarma in Damascus with students, businessmen and even actors queuing outside his stand for a bite of his succulent wraps.

Today, he is a refugee in Beirut trying to make ends meet and bringing a taste of home to fellow Syrians who sought safety in Lebanon.

The United Nations on Tuesday strongly condemned Syria over its poor human rights record and also took aim at Iran in resolutions adopted by the world body.

A resolution condemning "the grave deterioration of the human rights situation" in Syria was adopted by a resounding vote of 125 to 13, with 47 abstentions in the General Assembly committee for human rights.

MP Marwan Hamadeh resumed on Tuesday his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, focusing on Syria's hegemony over Lebanon under the premiership of slain PM Rafik Hariri and examining his ties with former President Emile Lahoud.

The ties between Hariri and MP Walid Jumblat came into prominence during the debate over the extension of Lahoud's term in 2004, prompting the STL Prosecution to reveal that it is studying the possibility of summoning the lawmaker to make his testimony before the tribunal.

Belgian authorities were investigating Tuesday whether an alleged jihadist from a Brussels suburb had appeared in a video by the Islamic State group that shows the beheadings of Syrian military personnel.

The Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws reported that one of the men featured in the video looked like Abdelmajid Gharmaoui, who is currently on trial in his absence in Belgium for membership of a jihadist group.

Indifferent to the sniper fire and shelling around him, the owner of the oldest hotel in Syria's Aleppo sits gloomily in the storied property he has been forced to close.

Just a few metres from the front line separating government and rebel forces in the city, Armen Mazloumian smokes a cigarette on the terrace of the Baron Hotel.