The army repelled overnight Monday an infiltration attempt by gunmen, who are scattered on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

The daily said that armed men opened fire at army posts in the area, compelling soldiers to respond using medium weapons and machineguns.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday stressed that his party's military intervention in Syria has nothing to do with esoteric end days prophecies about the return of Imam Mahdi.

“We are fighting in Syria to prevent American, Zionist and takfiri hegemony,” Nasrallah said in a largely religious speech marking the eighth night of Ashura.

The army on Sunday dismantled an explosive device that was placed near a Ashura gathering in the predominantly Shiite Sidon suburb of Haret Saida.

“The army defused an armed explosive device weighing 500 grams that was found on the Haret Saida road,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The army on Sunday conducted a major crackdown in the vicinity of the al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli and in other areas in the North.

Military units “carried out a major crackdown around the al-Beddawi camp in search of gunmen and fugitives, while raids were made in several suspicious locations,” the army said in a statement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has expressed concern that the rival Hizbullah-led coalition could be seeking a new political system in the country through its approach towards the stalled presidential vote, noting that the Sunni community in Lebanon is acting “under the pressure” of Hizbullah's fighting in Syria.

“Unfortunately, I don't see presidential elections in the foreseeable future,” Geagea said in an interview.

The Lebanese government has not given the greenlight for a swap deal with al-Nusra Front, a source said on Sunday, as media reports said General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim will seek the release of a number of Syrian women prisoners from the regime's jails.

“The members of the ministerial crisis cell were informed of al-Nusra's suggestions, but they are yet to take a stance on the proposals,” LBCI television reported in the afternoon.

Hizbullah MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi rejected any comparison between the resistance fighters and militants linked to takfiri groups, calling on those who are seeking justice to act similarly.

“The attempt to level the arms of the resistance with those of the takfiris is unjust,” Moussawi said during a speech at an Ashura gathering on Saturday eve.

Fierce clashes erupted between Hizbullah fighters and al-Nusra Front jihadists in the Syrian Qalamoun along the Lebanese border, a monitor said Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian regime troops backed by Hizbullah fighters engaged in battles with al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front on the outskirts of the strategic Syrian al-Qalamoun region along the Lebanese border.

Terrorists in the southern Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp aimed at launching attacks at the Lebanese army simultaneously with the gunbattles that erupted at the northern coastal city of Tripoli, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the daily, suspected armed men, residing in the al-Tawaree neighborhood in the Palestinian refugee camp, aimed at creating confusion among the army ranks and to expand the battle with the military to include South Lebanon.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi lashed out on Sunday at Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, considering that he is “clearly linked to the Iranian project in the region.”

“He (Nasrallah) is the main reason behind the growing modern terrorism, the growing sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shiites and the one behind terrorism and violence,” Rifi said in comments published in the Saudi newspaper Okaz.