Lebanon's top defense council has ordered an investigation into a deadly shooting in the Mount Lebanon region of Aley that involved the convoy of Minister Saleh a-Gharib.

The Higher Defense Council held a meeting Monday attended by President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Cabinet ministers and heads of Lebanon's security and military agencies.

Supporters of the Lebanese Democratic Party and relatives of two guards killed in gunfire a day earlier, briefly blocked with burning tires the Mount Lebanon highway of Bhamdoun, as the sound of heavy shooting into the air was heard on Monday.

The Lebanese Army on Monday reinforced security measures and intensified its patrols in the towns and villages of Aley after Sunday’s armed clash in the town of Qabrshmoun that left two dead and one wounded, the National News Agency reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Hizbullah has begun to pull back many of its units from Syrian territory and that the operation has been taking place away from the media spotlight, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles from "Lebanese airspace" targeting military positions in the central province of Homs and suburbs of Damascus, said Syrian state news agency SANA on Monday.

Two bodyguards were killed and a third was injured in an armed clash involving the convoy of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun on Sunday.

A Progressive Socialist Party supporter was also wounded in the incident.

Arab Tawhid Party leader ex-minister Wiam Wahhab on Sunday warned Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat and his son MP Taymour Jumblat after PSP supporters intercepted the convoy of Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil.

“What is happening in concurrence with Bassil’s tour is not befitting of you, Walid Beik, nor of Taymour, who is a promising, polite and respectable young man,” Wahhab tweeted.

Supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party on Sunday blocked several roads in the Aley district to prevent the passage of the convoy of Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil.

TV networks said several areas witnessed popular gatherings where PSP supporters intercepted Bassil’s motorcade, prompting the army to intervene several times.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Sunday emphasized that the FPM is not sectarian while noting that some parties are “annoyed” by its political alliances.

“We stand on a firm ground of understandings that annoys a lot of parties, so they try to undermine them,” Bassil said during a visit to the Mt. Lebanon town of Kahale.

The upcoming week is expected to witness an improvement in the relation between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat, media reports said.

“The frankness and reconciliation meeting between them will be held following an initiative from Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,” ministerial sources told Asharq al-Awsat daily in remarks published Sunday.