Syrian helicopters dropped explosives-packed barrels near rebel-held Yabrud on Tuesday, a monitoring group said, nearly three weeks into a major offensive targeting the strategic town near the Lebanese border.

The strikes come a day after at least 15 rebels were killed fighting in the Yabrud area, north of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group relying on contacts inside the war-torn country.

President Michel Suleiman traveled on Tuesday to the French capital Paris at the head of a delegation to attend the meeting of the French-sponsored International Support Group for Lebanon Wednesday.

“Lebanon prepared a comprehensive file based on an assessment by the World Bank,” Minister of Social Affairs Rashid Derbas said in comments published on Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Syrian warplanes on Monday fired 18 missiles on the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal and nearby areas.

“Syrian fighter jets fired 18 missiles on the Wadi al-Kheil area in Arsal's outskirts and the road between Flita (in Syria) and Arsal,” Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Syrian troops seized control Monday of a village near the strategic rebel bastion of Yabrud as they pushed closer to the town near the border with Lebanon, Syria's state television said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, meanwhile, said the army, backed by Lebanon's Hizbullah, was "advancing" in the area, but that "fierce battles are still ongoing there."

U.N. chief Ban stressed Monday the urgency of relaunching the Syrian peace process, urging Damascus in particular to return to Geneva with a more "constructive position."

"The only way to end the crisis is through a negotiated solution," he told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council, adding: "We are determined to bring the parties back to the table here in Geneva."

Four people were wounded as at least eight rockets fired from the Syrian side of the border struck several areas in the Bekaa on Monday, in an attack that was claimed by the Qaida-inspired group al-Nusra Front in Lebanon.

“Two rockets fell between the towns of Talya and Brital near the public road and one of them hit near a residential area in Brital's al-Habib valley,” NNA said.

Hizbullah is experiencing a surge in recruitment as it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops in Syria, members of the group have told London's Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper said that two Hizbullah members separately said there had been an increase in the number of men willing to fight in Syria.

The Damascus representative of U.N.-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has asked to quit his post, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.

Mokhtar Lamani, who heads Brahimi's Damascus office, "has submitted a request to the United Nations to be relieved of his duties, but he has not officially resigned," U.N. spokesman Khaled al-Masri told Agence France Presse.

The U.S. and Russian foreign ministers will attend French-sponsored talks in Paris Wednesday on helping Lebanon cope with the conflict in Syria, but the talks look set to be overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, France said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to come for the meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that Russia's Sergei Lavrov would also attend the conference.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour expressed pessimism on Monday over reaching consensus among the rival parties on the cabinet's policy statement, in particular regarding the army-people-resistance equation and the ongoing war in Syria.

“All sides should offer compromises in order to reach common grounds,” Abou Faour said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.