North Lebanon's border with Syria was hit on Monday night by cross-border shelling following an exchange of gunfire, a security official told Agence France Presse.

This is the latest of a series of border incidents in recent weeks.

The relatives of the officers detained in the case of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and a number of army supporters on Monday blocked the Sarba-Jounieh road near an army barracks, declaring that they will not leave before the release of the generals.

The military examining magistrate issued on Saturday arrest warrants against three army officers, who were released last week, in the case of the killing of Abdul Wahed and his companion at an army checkpoint in the Akkar town of al-Kweikhat in May.

A clash erupted on Monday outside EDL's building in Mar Mikhail between EDL contract workers and protesters condemning what they called “the occupation of public facilities.”

The Internal Security Forces formed a human wall to separate between the two sides who hurled stones at each other.

President Michel Suleiman is scheduled to travel Tuesday to Turkey in light of positive signals received by Lebanese officials about the case of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria, the Central News Agency reported on Monday.

Suleiman’s trip may carry “a happy surprise for the Lebanese in general and the abductees’ families in particular, knowing that the visitors of Baabda Palace have recently quoted President Suleiman as saying that he will not visit Turkey except after receiving confirmed information about the possibility of freeing them or setting a date for that,” well-informed sources told the agency.

The Phalange Party on Monday warned of “the insistence of the Syrian regime and its tools to expand the circle of violating the Lebanese sovereignty,” urging the government to “be firm in protecting the citizens and sparing Lebanon the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.”

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the party’s political bureau slammed the recent deadly Syrian shelling on the northern border areas, urging the government to “be firm in protecting the citizens and sparing Lebanon the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, and to provide full political cover for the plan to deploy the army on the northern and eastern borders.”

A Syrian force infiltrated the area of al-Qaa in Lebanon as rockets fired in clashes on the Syrian side of the border fell in the area.

Voice of Lebanon radio reported that the Syrian unit entered al-Qaa under the cover of artillery and rocket fires.

An Israeli force failed on Monday to abduct two shepherds from southern Lebanon, reported the National News Agency.

It said that 20 soldiers crossed the border at Mount Hermon and infiltrated 500 to 800 meters into Shebaa where it tried to kidnap Mohammed Qassem Hashem from Lebanon and Ahmed Haidar from Syria.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat slammed on Monday the Syrian regime’s “latest massacre” in the town of Treimsa, accusing it of seeking to “systematically destroy the country and lead it to fragmentation.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The Syrian people will be victorious in their revolt despite the international and Arab silence over their plight.”

President Michel Suleiman voiced on Monday his satisfaction with the Koura by-election that took place on Sunday, saying that it demonstrated the Lebanese people’s attachment to democracy.

He stressed the importance of holding constitutional obligations, such as elections, on schedule “because that is the basis of democratic systems.”

Two Lebanese men were wounded on Monday when a cluster bomb left over from the 2006 Israeli aggression on Lebanon exploded on the outskirts of the southern town of Houla.

The National News Agencies identified the men as 21-year-old Hassan Ali Mustafa and Dany Moussa Hussein, 36.