At least 14 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a suicide bomb attack inside a mosque in Damascus that also killed a top Sunni Muslim preacher and long-time supporter of President Bashar Assad.

A senior Lebanese army officer has said 4,000 Syrian soldiers – more than a quarter of those serving in Lebanon just a week ago – are back in Syria, but he said a complete withdrawal is nearly a month away at the earliest.