US plans to arm Syrian rebels have raised fears in Israel that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands, but analysts played down the threat -- provided no big guns are involved. Washington said last week that it would provide Syria's rebels with military support in the form of small arms after it determined that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday declined to categorise the arms the US will send to the rebels.

For years, Maher Sukkar, a Palestinian living in Lebanon, belonged to a boy scout troupe and played music. No one expected him to join the radical Al-Nusra Front and die fighting in Syria. "I'm sad and shocked," says Mohammed, who spent 10 years in the scouts with Sukkar. "I never knew him to be an extremist," his friend adds. "Most of our scout team members were conservative Muslims. But Maher was the only one who would smoke and swear during (the fasting month of) Ramadan."

Gunmen killed three Lebanese Shiites and a Turk on Sunday in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, a security source said, revising an earlier toll breakdown, as the conflict in neighbouring Syria raised fresh tensions. The unidentified assailants shot dead "two members of the Jaafar family, an Amhaz family member and a Turk" in an ambush while they were smuggling fuel through the Qaa area, he told AFP, asking not to be named. He had initially identified the victims as four Lebanese and said a fifth man was seriously wounded.

Gunmen killed three Lebanese Shiites and a Turk on Sunday in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, a security source said, revising an earlier toll breakdown, as the conflict in neighbouring Syria raised fresh tensions. The unidentified assailants shot dead "two members of the Jaafar family, an Amhaz family member and a Turk" in an ambush while they were smuggling fuel through the Qaa area, he told AFP, asking not to be named. He had initially identified the victims as four Lebanese and said a fifth man was seriously wounded.