Insight - After Syria, al Qaeda expanding in Lebanon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Faced with recent setbacks in Iraq and Syria, al Qaeda is slowly but firmly gaining influence in Lebanon, helped by the country's increasing sectarian violence and the turmoil caused by Syria's civil war, sources close to the group say.

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean state with a fragile sectarian power sharing system, has seen the worst of the Syria's war spill over with car bombs in Beirut and Tripoli, gunfights in city streets and rocket fire in the Bekaa Valley.