Syria denies link; US defends action

United Nations: Syria's UN Ambassador on Monday denied any link to the militant group fighting Lebanese troops in northern Lebanon, saying its leaders were jailed in Syria for belonging to Al Qaida and would face arrest if they return.

Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said after the leaders of the Fatah Islam group were freed they resumed the training of Al Qaida terrorists and Syrian authorities took legal action to arrest them again - but they ran away from Syrian justice.

"The leaders of this group are not Syrians. They are most of them Palestinians, or Jordanians or Saudis. Just a couple of them ... are Syrians, maybe," he said. "Most of the leaders of this group were arrested in Syria a couple of years ago, and they spent between three and four years in jail for belonging to Al Qaida group."

"They were freed by the Syrian authorities and then we noticed that they came back to some terrorist practice within the field of training some new elements to belong to Al Qaida activities. ... So Syria wouldn't by all means be responsible for what's going on right now with this group, because if they come to Syria they will be jailed,"Ja'afari told reporters at UN headquarters.

Syria temporarily closed two border crossings with northern Lebanon on Sunday because of security concerns over the clashes.

Meanwhile, the United States defended the actions of the Lebanesesecurity forces, declaring they are working in a "legitimate manner" against "provocations by violent extremists" operating out of a Palestinian refugee camp.

"This is a group that has been involved in violence to achieve whatever their stated objective may be," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The Fatah Islam group has suspected Al Qaida ties but McCormack declined to discuss outside connections that the organisation may have.

Asked specifically about a possible Syrian link, McCormack said, "At this point I wouldn't draw that connection."

He also declined to draw a parallel between the outbreak of violence and movement at the United Nations toward the establishment of a tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut.