The fate of at least 35 soldiers and policemen, who were held captive by Islamist gunmen in the northeastern border town of Arsal, remains unknown after contacts were lost with them.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Friday, armed men who retreated to Syria from the northeastern border town of Arsal after intensified clashes with the Lebanese army have taken hostage more than 35 soldiers and policemen in an attempt to exchange them for Islamist prisoners, who are held at Roumieh prison's Bloc B.

Speaker Nabih Berri has urged the Lebanese authorities to deal with the Syrian encampments “differently” after many gunmen taking refuge there joined militants last weekend and took over the northeastern border town of Arsal.

“From now on, we should deal with the refugee encampments differently and not to tolerate” the presence of armed men there, Berri was quoted as saying by several newspapers that hit the newsstands on Friday.

Looking at the Islamic State's string of military conquests in northern Iraq over the past week, one could think the jihadists outnumber their opponents 10 to 1.

Syria's ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali on Thursday criticized “those obstructing cooperation" between Lebanon and Syria," particularly after militants stormed the northeastern border town of Arsal.

Syria and Lebanon “are two countries with shared geography and one people and there is one enemy lurking both nations,” Ali said in an interview on al-Manar television.

Hundreds of Syrian refugees tried to head home from the border town of Arsal on Thursday during a truce that was reached following clashes between army troops and foreign jihadists in the Bekaa region.

However, the refugee convoy failed to cross the border and retreated back to Lebanese territory.

Almost three quarters of Syria's entire chemical stockpile has been destroyed, the world's chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday, after another 190 tons of agents were incinerated in Britain.

"The OPCW confirmed today (Thursday) that 74.2 percent of Syria's entire stockpile of chemicals has now been destroyed," The Hague-based Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons said in a statement.

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused Jordan Thursday of refusing entry to, or forcibly deporting, Palestinian refugees escaping Syria in what it called a defiance of the country's international obligations.

In a report released in Amman, the New York-based group said Jordan has officially banned their entry since January 2013 and has forcibly deported more than 100, including women and children, who managed to enter the country since mid-2012.

At least 27 Syrian regime forces have been killed in a jihadist assault on a military base in the northern province of Raqa, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 jihadists from the Islamic State were also killed in the attack on Brigade 93, including three who blew themselves up at the base.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji expressed gratitude on Thursday for the support that Saudi Arabia offers to Lebanon and in particular the military, considering it to be the main reason behind “thwarting conspiracy schemes and maintaining stability in Lebanon.”

“The generous aid (for the Lebanese army) came at the appropriate time,” Qahwaji said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Okaz.

More than 100 Syrian refugees have been either killed or wounded in the deadly clashes between army troops and jihadist fighters in the northeastern border town of Arsal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Wednesday.

"At least 100 Syrian refugees have been killed or wounded in the shelling on regions where they are taking refuge in Arsal,” the Observatory said in a released statement, without holding any party responsible for the bombing.