Fears rose in Lebanon on Monday that gunmen, who have fled into Lebanon after Syrian government troops and Hizbullah fighters captured Yabrud, a strategic town near the frontier, would increase retaliatory attacks against the supporters of the Shiite party.

The first alleged retaliation came on Sunday when a suicide bomber driving a Grand Cherokee left several casualties in the town of Nabi Othman, about 30 kilometers north of Baalbek.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has expressed readiness to engage in a “serious dialogue” with its arch foe Hizbullah and described the upcoming presidential elections as the “mother of all battles.”

“There is no tension with Hizbullah. Our differences with it are not personal or sectarian,” Geagea told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

A suicide car bomb attack killed four people and wounded several others late Sunday in the Bekaa town of al-Nabi Othman, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Hizbullah members knew he was about to carry out the attack, and tried to stop the vehicle. That was when the attacker detonated the vehicle," a Lebanese security source told Agence France Presse.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Sunday announced that his priority in the new cabinet will be seeking the withdrawal of Hizbullah from Syria, describing the fall of the Syrian rebel bastion of Yabrud as an “illusionary” victory and slamming the celebrations of Hizbullah's supporters in several Lebanese areas.

“In the wake of the successive events in Syria, the last of which was what happened in the town of Yabrud and the cross-border exodus into Arsal, we reiterate our warning against this rejected involvement in Syrian affairs, which exposes Lebanon to a definite danger,” Rifi said in a communique.

Head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad on Sunday called on the new cabinet to “exert efforts to achieve what it has considered as priorities: fighting terrorism and holding the presidential vote within its constitutional timeframe.”

He also urged the cabinet, which adopted a consensus policy statement Friday after a month of political wrangling, to “shoulder the responsibility of alleviating the dire living conditions of the Lebanese.”

The army opened fire on Sunday at a vehicle in the outskirts of Arsal after it refused to comply with the orders of the checkpoint, the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to NNA, an army checkpoint in al-Reyan valley on the outskirts of the eastern border town opened fire at the pick-up truck after people in it refused to follow their requests.

Arsal residents condemned Sunday the firing of rockets from the Eastern Mountain Range, urging the army to deploy in the area, as the only road linking the town to al-Labweh and Lebanese regions was reopened.

“We denounce all kinds of terrorism and the firing of rockets from the eastern mountain range,” a statement issued by the prominent figures of the Bekaa town of Arsal's following a meeting at the municipality of the town.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Sunday officials to grant the cabinet of Prime Minister Tammam Salam the vote of confidence after grueling discussions that concluded nearly 10-month consultations to form his cabinet and deep rift concerning the policy statement.

He wondered during Sunday's mass sermon if the Lebanese officials realize the damage inflicted to the country's economy, society, security and administration by their ongoing conflicts.

An estimated 10,000 Syrian children in Lebanon are likely to be suffering from malnutrition and has increased by 5.9 percent in 2013, according to a recent UNICEF-led survey as the U.N. agency said nearly 2,000 were at risk of dying if they weren't immediately treated.

Trapped in her northern Syrian village by fighting, Mervat watched her newborn baby progressively shrink. Her daughter's dark eyes seemed to grow bigger as her face grew more skeletal. Finally, Mervat escaped to neighboring Lebanon, and a nurse told her the girl was starving.

Syrian warplanes carried out several airstrikes on the outskirts of the eastern border town of Arsal as media reports said that gunmen from the rebel bastion of Yabrud fled to the area after the Syrian army seized full control of the town.

The Syrian airstrike targeted the outskirts of Arsal's mountainous regions.