A look at the fighting in Lebanon

Questions and answers about the outbreak of fighting in Lebanon:

Q: Who is fighting?

A: Lebanon's army is battling a small, al-Qaida linked militant group called Fatah Islam. The group set up its headquarters last fall in a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, after Syria released its leader from jail.

The fighting broke out Sunday when police raided militants' hideouts in the city, searching for bank robbers. Fighters burst out of the nearby refugee camp, ambushing army troops called in to help. The army then laid siege to the camp with tanks and artillery.

Q: Why are there Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon?

A: Lebanon still has about 400,000 Palestinians _ mostly refugees who fled after Israel was created in 1948, and their descendants. Many are crowded into 12 impoverished and often violent camps, banned from all but menial jobs and mostly living off U.N. aid.

Nahr el-Bared, the site of the siege, is densely populated, with narrow streets, 2- and 3-story buildings, markets, mosques and schools. It has at least 31,000 people.

Q: Can't Lebanon control the camps?

A: Lebanon's government says it has no control over the camps and does not go in under long-standing deals with Palestinian leaders.

But Lebanon also clearly fears any assaults on the camps would spark wider unrest and a backlash of Arab sympathy for the Palestinians _ particularly at a time when Israel is conducting airstrikes on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Many camps are rife with weapons, crime and clashes between rival guerrilla factions. In recent months, at least one other camp has become a haven for Islamic militants who send recruits to fight against the U.S. in Iraq.

Q: Is the current fighting linked to last summer's Lebanon war?

A: Not really. That war was between Israel and Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. It broke out after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers, amid Israeli worries that Hezbollah could fire rockets deep into its territory. Lebanon's army was mostly a bystander although it took losses.

In a broader sense, however, the new fighting does reflect the same troubling reality about Lebanon _ a country wracked by outbreaks of militancy it must struggle to contain, pulled this way and that by the region's main players: Syria, Iran, Israel and the United States.

Q: What about Lebanon's long civil war, from 1975-1990? Are there connections to that?

A: Again, not directly. But much of the trouble does stem from that period.

The civil war was fought among the country's Christian, Shiite and Sunni Muslim populations, with Palestinian guerrillas siding with Muslim factions and Israel at one point backing Christians. It devolved into struggles between powerful warlords, some of whom called on armed Palestinian factions to help their cause.

Syria sent troops to restore calm, leading to Syrian dominance of Lebanon until its army was finally forced to withdraw tens of thousands of troops in 2005 under Western pressure.

But some Lebanese believe Syria continues to cause trouble in Lebanon _ pointing to a rash of recent bombings in Lebanon and the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in early 2005.

The civil war also left Lebanon's central government deeply suspicious of Palestinian refugees while mostly powerless to control their camps. Lebanon came out of it overall with an uneasy balancing act between various sects and factions.

Q: How does Fatah Islam fit into all this?

A: The group's leader, a Palestinian named Shaker al-Absi, has said he is inspired by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and is training militants to carry out attacks in other countries. A U.S. counterterrorism official said America considers al-Absi a double threat because he has a Syrian past as well as al-Qaida links.

Al-Absi's most direct al-Qaida link comes from his association with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed by U.S. forces there. Al-Absi was sentenced to death in absentia in Jordan, along with al-Zarqawi, for plotting the 2002 assassination of an American diplomat.

Al-Absi was in a Syrian jail at the time, accused by Syria of planning terror attacks there against Western tourists. Released by Syria last year, he moved to Lebanon.

Lebanese security officials say his group has only about 100 members _ both from Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria and local sympathizers from the conservative Sunni Salafi branch of Islam, the same branch al-Zarqawi championed.

Q: Is there a direct Syrian connection to the latest fighting?

A: That's a matter of debate.

Syria denies any role and says it has been working to round up Fatah Islam's leaders, not support them. Syria does have serious problems with al-Qaida-inspired militants _ who have targeted its own regime _ and some Western officials believe the Syrian regime genuinely does fear militants like al-Absi.

But Lebanese officials accuse Syria of using groups like Fatah Islam to stir up trouble in Lebanon _ keeping it destabilized and thus distracted from U.N. investigations into Hariri's death.