Jordanian border guards have intercepted two vehicles crossing from Syria loaded with arms and thousands of Captagon tablets, a drug widely used by Syrian rebels, the army announced Thursday.

The Petra news agency quoted an army official as saying one of the vehicles and its cargo was destroyed when it was fired on by border guards during the operation late on Wednesday.

The Syrian army found on Wednesday a number of explosive-rigged vehicles carrying Lebanese license plates while combing through southwest of the strategic town of Yabrud.

According to the Syrian state television, the Syrian army located a factory for manufacturing bombs in Ras al-Ain village in Yabrud and seized several booby-trapped vehicles carrying Lebanese license plates.

Syria's air force on Thursday carried out fresh strikes on areas on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said Syrian warplanes carried out eight raids in two stages on Khirbet Younin on the outskirts of Arsal at noon, targeting Syrian opposition fighters.

The families of Lebanese nationals missing in Syria, which Syrian authorities refuse to recognize their presence in the regime's prisons, called on General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim to tackle the matter with the regime of the neighboring country.

According to a report published in An Nahar newspaper on Thursday the relatives demanded the release of the kins and the handing over of the bodies of those who were killed.

A significant number of fighters from the Syrian wing of al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra are present in Syria’s mountainous border region, and analysts said the Assad regime's continued efforts to drive rebels out of the area could push more of them into Lebanon.

The analysts told Washington Post that the move could escalate instability by significantly boosting the operational capability of the Lebanese branch of Jabhat al-Nusra.

Syria's foreign ministry said Wednesday that a U.S. decision to close its Washington embassy and two consulates was illegal and arbitrary.

A statement described the decision as "an arbitrary measure," saying it was "a clear violation of the Vienna Convention" that governs diplomatic relations between nations.

Russia said Wednesday the United States had renounced its "co-sponsor" role in negotiating peace in Syria by closing down the Syrian embassy in Washington.

"By making such a unilateral move, our American partners in essence are depriving themselves of the role of co-sponsor of the process of political regulation in Syria and willy-nilly playing into the hands of the hard-core Syrian opposition," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The General Security announced on Wednesday that Syrian detainees it had arrested on Monday confessed to belonging to a terrorist network, reported the National News Agency.

It said that the five Syrians, who had entered Lebanon illegally, confessed to transporting a booby-trapped vehicle from Syria to Lebanon.

Four rockets struck two areas in the Bekaa region on Wednesday, causing no casualties.

Two rockets fired from the Eastern Mountain Belt on the Lebanese-Syrian border landed in agricultural fields in the al-Aqidiyeh area near the central Bekaa town of Beit Shama, causing no casualties, state-run National News Agency reported.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly lauded on Wednesday the determination of the government to follow up closely on the issue of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the reopening of a vital road in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Following a meeting with Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, Plumbly said: “I congratulated him on his new and heavy responsibilities.”