WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to speed up assistance to Lebanon’s army but has no plans as yet to increase current military aid to deal with the latest crisis, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s cabinet is likely to cancel measures on Wednesday that angered the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country’s civil war, political sources said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to oversee a big offensive against al Qaeda in what the U.S. military says is the group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.