Several families in the northern Lebanese border towns of Mashta Hassan and Mashta Hammoud have received information that two Lebanese citizens and a Syrian man were killed and two Syrians wounded when they came under gunfire on the al-Jaafariyat bridge in the Syrian town of Tal Kalakh, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday, as another report spoke of a 9-strong Lebanese armed group led by an Iraqi man.

NNA said the “unconfirmed reports have sparked a major tumult in both border towns, to which local and foreign media outlets have flocked in a bid to scrutinize the authenticity of these reports.”

A number of Syrian supporters of President Bashar Assad held a sit-in outside the Russian embassy in Beirut on Sunday to express their gratitude for Moscow’s support, Voice of Lebanon radio station reported.

VDL (93.3) said that security forces deployed in the area to prevent any clash with anti-Assad activists.

Fierce clashes approached the Syrian capital on Sunday as fresh violence across the country killed at least 59 civilians, 31 regime troops and nine army deserters, according to activists.

Regime forces fired heavy artillery and mortar rounds against the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Saqba, Irbin and Hamouriyeh and were locked in close battle with rebel fighters emboldened by a fresh wave of desertions, activists said.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday he hopes Russia and China will change their stance on Syria and allow the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution backing a League plan to end the crisis.

"I hope these two countries will alter their position concerning the draft U.N. Security Council resolution which would adopt the Arab plan," Arabi said before leaving Cairo for the United Nations in New York.

Russia on Sunday slammed a decision to suspend the Arab League's observer mission in Syria after a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"We would like to know why they are treating such a useful instrument in this way," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on a visit to Brunei, cited by the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency.

European and Arab U.N. members on Saturday started rewriting a proposed Security Council resolution condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on dissent after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria.

European countries said the withdrawal highlighted the need for U.N. action. France's foreign minister contacted his Russia counterpart in a bid to overcome Moscow's resistance to the draft resolution officially presented on Friday, diplomats said.

Syria said it was surprised by and regrets the Arab League's decision to suspend its observer mission to the unrest-swept country on Saturday.

"Syria is surprised by and regrets the decision taken by (Arab League chief Nabil) al-Arabi to suspend the observer mission after having decided (last week) to extend it for a month," state news agency SANA said on its website.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said on Saturday it does not plan to move its headquarters out of unrest-hit Syria.

"There is no change, and Hamas has not taken any decision to leave Syria, and we are still there," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Agence France Presse.

The opposition Syrian National Council on Saturday urged Syria's diaspora to protest outside Russian embassies against Moscow's opposition to a draft resolution on Syria at the U.N. Security Council.

"We call upon all Syrians abroad to show solidarity with our people inside the country and protest against the Russian position by holding sit-ins in front of the embassies of the (Syrian) regime, Russian embassies, and at U.N. centers tomorrow Sunday at 2:00 pm their local time," Samir Neshar, a member of the SNC's executive committee, said at a news conference in Istanbul.

The Arab League said on Saturday it was suspending its observer mission monitoring the deadly regime crackdown on dissent in Syria because of the upsurge in violence, a League official said.

"The decision to suspend the Arab League mission in Syria has been taken because of the upsurge in violence, and an official announcement will be made later," the official told Agene France Presse on condition of anonymity.