BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s June election faces a possible delay, prime minister-designate Tammam Salam said, as he prepared to form a government which aims to resolve months of dispute over the vote and shield the country from war in neighboring Syria.

Salam, a moderate who won broad political support to become premier, said he would try to bring all of Lebanon’s rival factions into a government whose main priority was paving the way for the parliamentary election.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Syrian government air strike killed 15 people on Saturday, including nine children, in a district of the northern city of Aleppo where Kurdish fighters have been battling forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, a violence monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a warplane had bombarded the western edges of the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city, where Assad’s forces have been battling rebels for nine months.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Tammam Salam’s father served six times as prime minister in the turbulent years leading up to Lebanon’s civil war.

With his country threatened once again by sectarian rift and regional conflict, Salam the son was named prime minister on Saturday by Lebanese politicians hoping his soft-spoken calm may help to avert a fresh conflict in their fraught Mediterranean state.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese politician Tammam Salam was named prime minister on Saturday after he won a sweeping parliamentary endorsement, pledging to bridge the country’s deep divisions and shield it from the dangers of neighboring Syria’s civil war.

Salam was designated after the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose two years in office were dominated by efforts to contain sectarian tensions, violence and economic fallout from the Syrian conflict.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah, its allies and pro-Western rivals on Friday backed Sunni politician Tammam Salam to be Lebanon’s new prime minister, handing him an overwhelming parliamentary endorsement to form a government.

Salam was endorsed by more than 80 of 128 members of parliament in the first day of talks held by President Michel Suleiman to nominate a successor to Najib Mikati.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah and its allies are expected to back Sunni politician Tammam Salam on Friday to be Lebanon’s new prime minister, politicians said, handing him an overwhelming parliamentary endorsement to form a government.

President Michel Suleiman is holding two days of talks to nominate a successor to Najib Mikati, who resigned last month after two fraught years in office during which he sought to contain sectarian tensions, street violence and economic fallout from the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese politician Tammam Salam, a former minister from a prominent Sunni Muslim political dynasty, emerged as a potential new prime minister on Thursday when he was endorsed by the country’s pro-Western March 14 coalition.

Lebanon faces a parliamentary election in June but was plunged into uncertainty two weeks ago by the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, after a dispute over the electoral law and an extension to the term of a top security official.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Friday to purge Syria of “extremist forces” he accused of assassinating a leading Sunni Muslim cleric who backed his two-year battle against rebels and protesters.

Assad made the pledge in a message of condolence over the death of Mohammed al-Buti, who was killed along with dozens of worshippers by an explosion in a Damascus mosque on Thursday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Friday to purge Syria of “extremist forces” he accused of assassinating a leading Sunni Muslim cleric who backed his two-year battle against rebels and protesters.

Assad made the pledge in a message of condolence over the death of Mohammed al-Buti, who was killed along with dozens of worshippers by an explosion in a Damascus mosque on Thursday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s government and rebels accused each other of firing a rocket loaded with chemical agents outside the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, an attack which a cabinet minister said killed 16 people and wounded 86.

President Bashar al-Assad, battling a two-year uprising against his rule, is widely believed to have a chemical arsenal.