LABWEH, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army sent commandos to the tense border area with Syria on Monday, bracing for another spillover of the conflict next door as Syrian rebels continued to flee into Lebanon after the fall of their stronghold to President Bashar Assad’s forces.

Lebanon has been on edge since Yabroud fell on Sunday and Syrian rebels started pouring into the Lebanese Sunni-dominated town of Arsal, which is surrounded by Shiite villages guarded by Hezbollah militants.

With opposition fighters crossing into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a major force, Syria’s smaller neighbor is likely to be dragged even more into the conflict. The civil war already has ignited polarizing sectarian tensions between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites.

On Monday, several rockets struck the predominantly Shiite town of Labweh near Arsal, causing some damage but no casualties. Still, angry Labweh residents said the rockets were fired from Arsal and closed off the road between the two towns with sand barriers, guarded by about 20 armed Hezbollah fighters.

Earlier in the day, Lebanese troops and commandos in beige, desert-style army uniforms, patrolled the rugged, hilly border area on foot. On one patrol, near the northeastern village of Fakiha, they came across an abandoned vehicle, rigged with explosives and blew it up, turning the SUV into a fireball and leaving a four-meter crater on the ground.