Fags and Fagging are a different root to Faggot, IMHO, which definitely seems more American.

I went to a minor public school and though fagging had been abolished many years prior, the first year of the senior school (age... 12/13ish) were still informally known as the fags. It wasn't particularly a homophobic slur, IIRC, though playground homophobia was rife back then (around 1990) so who knows really.

I do know I see "Faggot" used more for the food than as a slur these days, but then I don't hang around the *chans...