Elite fighters from Hizbullah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, are leading the fight against rebels in the region of Qusayr in the central province of Homs, a watchdog said on Monday.

"It's Hizbullah that is leading the battle in Qusayr, with its elite forces," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

Three rockets and a shell fired from Syrian territory landed in Lebanon's Hermel district on Sunday, causing material damage only, the state-run National News Agency reported.

A shell and two rockets hit the road leading to the Sahlat al-Ma' area in the town of al-Qasr, NNA said.

The March 14 General Secretariat renewed on Wednesday its call on Hizbullah to cease its fighting in Syria, “which will leave a deep scar on Lebanese-Syrian ties.”

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Hizbullah's fighting alongside the Syrian regime and at Iran's behest will pave the way for Sunni-Shiite strife, which the party only warns of in words, but is actively working for.”

Two more rockets fired from Syria landed on a border town in the Bekaa valley on Monday, prompting President Michel Suleiman to call for a security meeting which sought Arab League assistance in helping Lebanon confront the attacks.

“The safety of any Lebanese citizen is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state … and any attack on Lebanon no matter from which side it came is rejected,” Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour said in a statement he read after the security meeting was held at Baabda palace.

Two people were killed and five others were wounded when rockets fired from Syria hit the Bekaa towns of al-Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in the Hermel District on Sunday.

“Ali Hasan Qataya was killed and four people were wounded, one critically, when shells fired from Syria hit the center of the Hermel town of al-Qasr,” said Lebanon's National News Agency.

The kidnappers of Hussein Kamel Jaafar, who have taken him to the town of Yabroud in Syria, have asked for a one-million-dollar ransom, the state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, sources denied to LBCI television that Arsal Municipality head Ali al-Hujairi had headed to the Syrian town of Yabroud to negotiate with the kidnappers, noting that there are "nonstop efforts" to release the abductee.

Negotiations to free Hussein Jaafar, who was kidnapped over the weekend, stumbled after media reports said that a hostage swap took place between the Jaafar clan and the residents of the eastern Bekaa town of Arsal.

The former mayor of Arsal, Basel al-Hujairi, denied in comments to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Tuesday that Jaafar was released.

A hostage swap took place on Monday between the Jaafar clan and the residents of the Bekaa town of Arsal, ending a wave of tit-for-tat abductions.

"Abductee Hussein Jaafar has been freed and the kidnapped Arsal residents have been handed over to the army's intelligence directorate," LBCI television reported.

Conflicting reports emerged on Thursday that the Free Syrian Army had shelled Hizbullah positions in Lebanon and Syria, various media outlets said.

The FSA said that the attacks targeted a Hizbullah artillery position in Lebanon's Hermel region in the Bekaa, reported al-Arabiya.

Unknown assailants have opened fire on a Lebanese army barracks in east Lebanon, causing material damage only, media reports said Friday.

The incident took place after midnight when bullets hit the outer wall of Badih al-Hajj barracks of the 6the brigade in Hermel, they said.