DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - LEBANON: ANOTHER JIHADIST GROUP, FATAH-AL-ISLAM

Fatah al-Islam: shadowy Al-Qaeda inspired group

Fatah al-Islam, whose fighters were locked in deadly gunbattles with Lebanese forces on Sunday, is a shadowy Islamic extremist group accused of links to the Al-Qaeda terror network.

The radical splinter group has its stronghold near the port city of Tripoli in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared camp, which is home to about 22,000 people.

It says it is training young Palestinians in the camp to fight "the Jews in Palestine."

Lebanese authorities have accused Fatah al-Islam, said to be ideologically inspired by the Al-Qaeda network of

Osama bin Laden, of working for the Syrian intelligence services.

But Syria has denied any links with Islamist groups such as Fatah al-Islam, which is headed by Shaker Abssi, a Palestinian wanted by both Syria and Jordan.

The group was also accused of carrying out bus bombings in a mountainous Christian area north of Beirut in February that left three people dead.

But Fatah al-Islam denied any involvement in the bombings, and also denied it was linked to Al-Qaeda.

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1) Fatah al-Islam: shadowy Al-Qaeda inspired group