Lebanon's Neo-Salafis.

The face, arms and hands of Abu Omar, a Neo-Salafi "commander" in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, are covered in second-degree burns. "They tried to kill me with a bomb", he explains the militant, who is known around the camp as one of the leaders of a small jihadi group called Jund al-Sham, and wanted by the authorities in Beirut on charges of murder.

Dressed in battle fatigues, a pistol and extra ammunition clipped to his belt, Abu Omar denies membership of the group, insisting that the organisation does not exist at all. He says: "It's made up by the media".

According to Lebanese security sources, however, the recent explosion which he claims was an attempt on his life was in fact a "work accident". They suspect an artillery shell blew up when he and his colleagues tried to extract the explosives. Abu Omar's denial that he is a member of Jund al-Sham is part of the mystery that shrouds much of Lebanon's jihadi scene.

The emergence of Fatah al-Islam only six months ago in Nahr el-Bared, another Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, supported by hundreds of well armed fighters from a variety of Arab countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, has raised fears that the Levant is emerging as a new frontier for al-Qaeda. But Fatah al-Islam is the creation of Syria's Alawite/Ba'thist dictatorship (see news23-LebSyrFatahIslamHaririJun4-07), although Syria is part of the Iran-led axis which is in temporary alliance with al-Qaeda.

Jund al-Sham is believed to be one of two smaller Neo-Salafi groups - adherents of a puritanical form of Islam - which have established a base in Ain el-Hilweh, the largest of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. The camps are off limits to the Lebanese Army, based on a 1969 Cairo Agreement between Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), making them a refuge for fugitives and radicals.

Jund al-Sham - which means "The army of greater Syria" - first appeared in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, and has been linked to attacks in Syria as well as Lebanon.

Some reports in the Lebanese media have suggested that Jund al-Sham was recently disbanded, with its members joining the more established 'Esbat al-Ansar, a Neo-Salafi group set up in Ain el-Hilweh in the 1980s and accused by the US of having links with al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks.

Curiously, however, there is one thing on which all the militants, security forces, religious scholars and terrorism experts agree: most of Lebanon's jihadis are inspired by al-Qaeda but not linked logistically to the core of the network. Nor do they take directions from senior operatives in either Iraq or Pakistan.

Speaking in the mosque in the militant Ta'mir district of Ain el-Hilweh, Abu Sharif, an 'Esbat al-Ansar leader, says al-Qaeda has evolved from a network of operatives to a school of thought, adding: "All the [Sunni] jihadi movements are adopting al-Qaeda's ideology. We have adopted it". But he sees a big difference between the Qaeda approach elsewhere and in Lebanon, saying: "There are some things that we do differently in Arab countries. Jihad is only fought where there is occupation, like in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine".

Many foreign and Lebanese observers, however, fear al-Qaeda's top echelons are beginning to see Lebanon as a base they can exploit and link up with more directly, particularly as the country hosts a 13,000-strong UN force mandated with policing the border with Israel. Dr. Zawahiri has called for attacks on what he calls "crusader forces" in Lebanon and in June, for the first time, a roadside bomb targeted the peacekeepers, killing six Spanish soldiers and raising fresh alarm.

Abu Omar rejects any link between Lebanon's jihadi groups and the UN attack, saying: "We respect Shaikh Ayman [al-Zawahiri] but we decide what is good for us here. If he asks us to attack UNIFIL [UN Interim Force in Lebanon], we will not do that". Abu Omar used to go by the nom-de-guerre Abu Yahia al-Falastini and fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq, alongside Zarqawi. He is adamant that no major al-Qaeda figures have moved their base of operations to Lebanon, saying: "I know them all from Iraq. I would have known".

Complicating the jihadi picture in Lebanon are long-running suspicions that Islamist militants are manipulated by elements of the Alawite/Ba'thist dictatorship in Syria, which effectively ruled Lebanon from April 1976 until its troops were pulled out in late April 2005. That is one thing on which Abu Omar and the Lebanese authorities, dominated by anti-Syria parties, appear to agree, saying: "There is only fake al-Qaeda in Lebanon".

Members of the pro-Syria Lebanese opposition, however, accuse the pro-West coalition government, dominated by a Sunni party, of having set up Fatah al-Islam as a counterweight to the Iran-sponsored Shi'ite Hizbollah movement. But this is strongly denied by the government.

Hizbullah, which leads the opposition, has been among those groups which have spread the rumour that Fatah al-Islam was created by the Future Movement of the Hariri family. But in reality, Fatah al-Islam is a Syria-created offshoot of Fatah al-Intifada, which is part of the Syrian intelligence network.

Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr says he has seen no evidence of outside involvement in Fatah al-Islam. But a senior security official says that among the militants rounded up, the lower echelons appear to believe they are fighting for al-Qaeda while their leaders know that this is not the case. He says: "Al-Qaeda is camouflage". Fatah al-Islam and other jihadi cells arrested in the north and east of Lebanon had Syrian support.