Maronite bishops regretted on Wednesday Hizbullah's campaign against President Michel Suleiman and condemned the "assault on his dignity" as the symbol of the nation's unity.

Following its monthly meeting under Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki, the council of Maronite bishops “urged all parties to stop the campaign against the president … out of respect for the nation.”

Arab Democratic Party Secretary-General Rifaat Eid denied on Wednesday that his father and the party's leader and ex-MP, Ali Eid, had fled to the neighboring country Syria.

“My father is practicing his normal life in Hikr al-Dahri town in (the northern district of) Akkar,” Eid said in comments to LBCI.

Conflicting reports emerged on Wednesday on whether the Lebanese army opened anti-aircraft fire at Syrian warplanes that intensively hovered over regions the Lebanese border town of Arsal, in the eastern Bekaa.

MTV said that a Syrian airstrike targeted an area near a post for the Lebanese army in village of Aqba al-Mabeeda, prompting the army to open anti-aircraft fire.

Israel said Wednesday it fired at and hit two members of Hizbullah as they tried to plant a bomb near the Israeli-Syrian border, but Syrian state media accused the Jewish state of targeting its forces.

"Earlier today, two Hizbullah-affiliated terrorists were identified attempting to plant an explosive device near the Israel-Syria border in the northern Golan Heights,” the army said in a statement.

The al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front in Syria and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant haven't taken a decision to “officially enter Lebanon,” as the two groups are still dealing with agents for them to “send messages to Hizbullah.”

“Both groups have the necessary logistic capabilities to carry out attack in Lebanon similar to those in Iraq but there's no decision yet to move the conflict to Lebanon,” a leader in al-Nusra Front said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale on Tuesday called on Hizbullah to stop contributing to the Syrian conflict, describing the Assad regime as the "magnet" that has been attracting extremist groups into Syria and into Lebanon.

“We oppose terrorism in all its forms and frankly the Assad regime has been the magnet that's been bringing the extremist, takfiri terrorist threat here, into Lebanon and into Syria,” Hale said during an interview on LBCI television.

A Syrian officer and his men took a breather Tuesday outside a mosque in dusty village of Sahel as they awaited the greenlight to resume their offensive on nearby Yabrud.

The rebel-held town in the Qalamoun mountains lies on the strategic highway linking Damascus to Homs, Syria's third city. Close to the Lebanese border, it is crucial to rebel supply lines.

A 20-year-old student appeared in an English court on Tuesday charged with aiding terrorism in Syria.

Mouloud Tahari is the third person charged in the investigation alongside his mother and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.

Syria has surrendered or destroyed nearly a third of its chemical arsenal but remains behind on its international obligations, the head of the disarmament mission told the world's chemical watchdog Tuesday.

Syria has already missed several target dates to hand over or destroy its arsenal before a June 30 deadline and the United Nations-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission called on Damascus to move faster.

Syria's best-known filmmaker was taken in for questioning by Syrian intelligence forces at the border as he made his way to a Geneva film festival Tuesday, a friend told Agence France Presse.

Mohammad Malas was travelling to Beirut to take a flight to Geneva, where his latest film "Ladder to Damascus" is set to feature in the Swiss city's upcoming film festival.