Syrian warplane attacks Lebanese border area

A Syrian warplane has struck targets near the border with Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding nine others, Lebanon's state-run news agency said. The victims are the latest numbers added to a death toll of at least 93,000 people since the beginning of the war.

A Lebanese security official in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region confirmed Saturday's airstrike, adding that those killed included six members of the same family. 

The official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity in line with regulations, also said the attack targeted the rebel-held Syrian town of Yabroud just across the border from the Lebanese town of Arsal.

The area is known to house many refugees from the Syrian town of Qusayr, which was captured by Syrian forces in June following battles that destroyed much of the town.

Humanitarian agencies are increasingly calling for immediate access to Syrian refugees to provide life-saving assistance and prevent further deaths.

"The situation of women and children in the Syrian city of Homs is rapidly deteriorating, with some 400,000 civilians now displaced in the district of Al Waer, living in partially constructed buildings, schools and other public buildings, Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF and one-time national security advisor under President Bill Clinton, told Al Jazeera Friday.

"We call on all parties to facilitate immediate safe access to these families so we can provide life-saving assistance, and to allow those families currently trapped in Al Waer who wish to leave to do so in safety and in dignity," he added.

Also Saturday, rebels captured an arms depot near Damascus, seizing weapons and ammunition from the regime, activists said.

The pro-rebel Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that militants from the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group led the assault on the depot in Qalamun district north of the capital. Militants seized caches of ammunition, rockets and anti-tank missiles, the Observatory said, which relies on reports from a network of informants on the ground.

Syria's main opposition coalition meanwhile urged the release of a Catholic priest who disappeared Monday while visiting a rebel-held city dominated by Islamic groups in the country's northeast. The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition said it was "deeply concerned" over the disappearance of Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest and a well-known figure in Syria.

"We urge all parties involved in the disappearance of Father Paolo to immediately come forward and release him," the coalition said in a statement released in Istanbul Saturday. It described the priest as a "wise man of peace and compassion" who engaged in interfaith dialogue with Muslims and forged close ties with people all over Syria.

Activists said Dall'Oglio went to Raqqa to meet with al-Qaida-linked militants. The city, which fell to the rebels in early March, has seen tensions between the hardliners and more moderate rebel groups over how to administer it.

Dall'Oglio is a critic of the regime of President Bashar Assad, which the rebels are fighting to overthrow. A year ago, the government expelled him from Syria, where he had lived for 30 years.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, in charge of the Holy See's office dealing with Eastern Churches, has expressed "closeness in prayer" to Dall'Oglio's fellow Jesuits over the "persistence of the uncertainty of the situation," the Vatican said Saturday.

Sandri's office said it was praying that "the war ends and peace is given back to beloved Syria and all the peoples of the Middle East."

Dall'Oglio is the third Christian cleric believed to have been kidnapped in northern Syria this year. In April, two Orthodox bishops were abducted and have not been heard from since their kidnapping. No group has publically claimed it is holding the clerics.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press