Some facts about Fatah Al Islam

Lebanese troops fought militants from the Fatah Al Islam group around a Palestinian refugee camp on Monday, a day after 57 people were killed in battles there and in the nearby northern city of Tripoli, security sources said.

Here are some facts about Fatah Al Islam:

- The faction emerged in November when it split from Fatah Al Intifada (Fatah Uprising), a Syrian-backed Palestinian group. Fatah Al Islam had some 200 fighters at the time, based in Nahr Al Bared camp. Security sources have said militants from other Palestinian camps have joined the group since then and have been trained at the camp.

- The Lebanese government links Fatah Al Islam to Syrian intelligence. Syria and Fatah Al Islam deny any links to each other. The government says four Syrian members of Fatah Al Islam confessed to bombing two buses in February in a Christian area near Beirut. Three people were killed in the attacks.

- Fatah Al Islam's leader, Shaker Al Abssi, is a veteran Palestinian guerrilla. He was sentenced to death in Jordan for killing a US diplomat in 2002. The slain leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, received a similar sentence for the same crime.

- Abssi says his group has no organisational links to Al Qaida but agrees with its aim of fighting infidels. Fatah Al Islam statements have appeared on Islamist web sites known to publish Al Qaida statements.

- Abssi told Reuters in March that his group's main mission was to reform the Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon according to Islamic sharia law before confronting Israel.