Asbat al-Ansar.

The group operates from a refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

Asbat al-Ansar seeks to overthrow the Lebanese government and to ban anti-Islamic influences in Lebanon.

The U.S. State Dept. estimates the group controls between 100 and 300 fighters. Most of its supporters and members are Palestinians.

Asbat al-Ansar reportedly has links with Al-Qaida. It may receive funding from Al-Qaida and extremist Sunni groups. Saudi intelligence has also had ties to the group, according to some reports.

The group has carried out several attacks in Lebanon since its founding in the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, Asbat al-Ansar assassinated Lebanese religious leaders. It has also bombed nightclubs, theaters and liquor stores. The group then increased its operational profile with attacks on international targets and a grenade attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut in 2000. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the group is also believed to be the main source of Palestinian fighters in Iraq.

Asbat al-Ansar is an extremist Islamic group with reported ties to Al-Qaida and other extremist terrorist networks. It follows the ideology of a sect of the Wahhabi Islamic movement that justifies violence against civilians to attain political goals.

There have been reports that Saudi intelligence services have been involved in relocating Wahhabi fundamentalists from Chechnya to Lebanon to join groups such as Asbat al-Ansar and Takfir Wa Al Hijra. Saudi Arabia's royal family has also been linked to the local Wahhabi movement.

Asbat al-Ansar's leader is Abdel-Karim al-Saadi, otherwise known as Abou Mohjen. He is a Palestinian fundamentalist who was sentenced to death in Lebanon in 1995 for the assassination of a Muslim cleric. He is believed to be in hiding in the lawless Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon called Ein el Hilweh, near Sidon.

Members of Asbat al-Ansar consider it their religious duty to protect Chechen Muslims. They are said to believe killing a Russian will guarantee martyrdom and a place in paradise.

In October 2001, a Lebanese newspaper reported that Asbat al-Ansar fighters were training in the mountains near Tripoli, in the northern part of Lebanon, to attack Western targets.

Small in number, Asbat al-Ansar is considered by some experts to be a fringe group without a significant international presence.

The group's known activities have diminished in recent years. Asbat al-Ansar was criticized by other Sunni extremist groups for failing to support Fatah al-Islam during fighting with the Lebanese armed forces in 2007.

Asbat al-Ansar during 2007 largely focused on supporting jihad in Iraq and planning attacks against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Lebanese security forces and Western interests. The U.S. State Dept. reported by 2008 that the group had been reluctant to involve itself in operations in Lebanon for fear of losing its safe haven in the Ain Al-Hilwah refugee camp.

Aug. 18: Members of Asbat al-Ansar tried to detain several rival Lebanese militants hiding in the Ein el Hilweh refugee camp, sparking skirmishes.

Oct. 31: The United Kingdom added Asbat al-Ansar to its list of banned terrorist groups.

April 11: The Australian government added Asbat al-Ansar to its list of designated foreign terrorist groups.

October: Lebanese security forces arrested Ibn al-Shahid, believed to be associated with Asbat al-Ansar, and charged him with masterminding the bombing of three fast-food restaurants in 2002. He was also charged with an attempted car bomb attack against a McDonald's restaurant in a Beirut suburb earlier that year.

June: Fighting erupted between Jund al-Sham and the Lebanese army as the government attempted to establish control over the Palestinian refugee camps. Since 2004, many militants have left the camps to fight in Iraq, according to camp residents.

June: The Lebanese government detained members of a cell of Al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the Bekaa Valley that had trained with Asbat al-Ansar and was suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Lebanon against UNIFIL and Western targets.

June 17: Asbat al-Ansar-associated elements were implicated in a Katyusha rocket attack launched from Lebanon against northern Israel.

July: Darrar al-Rifai, a Jund al-Sham militant believed to be connected to the May killings of the Fatah members, was shot dead in Ain al-Hilweh camp. According to observers, Asbat al-Ansar members helped to defuse the situation.