Date: Sun Nov 23 17:41:17 2014
ISIS comes to Libya- ISIS finds support in Libya
By Paul Cruickshank, Nic Robertson, Tim Lister and Jomana Karadsheh, CNN
November 23, 2014 -- Updated 2106 GMT (0506 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* ISIS has taken over Derna, Libya, a city of 100,000 on the
Mediterranean coast
* "Derna today looks identical to Raqqa, the ISIS headquarters town in
Syria" an analyst says
* Derna, marginalized during the Gadhafi era, has a long history of
Islamist radicalism
* Watch it:
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http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/11/18/ctw-pkg-robertson-l
ibya-isis-stronghold.cnn.html
(CNN) -- The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars
carry the group's insignia. The local football stadium is used for public
executions. A town in Syria or Iraq? No. A city on the coast of the
Mediterranean, in Libya.
Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete
control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the
Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the
European Union.
The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their
presence westwards along the coast, Libyan sources tell CNN.
The sources say the Derna branch of ISIS counts 800 fighters and operates
half a dozen camps on the outskirts of the town, as well as larger
facilities in the nearby Green Mountains, where fighters from across North
Africa are being trained.
It has been bolstered by the return to Libya from Syria and Iraq of up to
300 Libyan jihadists who were part of ISIS' al Battar Brigade -- deployed at
first in Deir Ezzor in Syria and then Mosul in Iraq. These fighters
supported the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam in Derna, a pro-ISIS
faction.
The council had been competing for superiority with another militant group,
the Abu Salem Brigade, some of whose fighters' loyalties lay with al Qaeda,
according to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist now involved in
counter-terrorism for the Quilliam Foundation.
Al Qaeda's top envoy in Libya, Abdulbasit Azuz, left Derna after U.S.
Special Forces captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah, an alleged ringleader of the
Benghazi attacks in June. Azuz is now believed to be in Syria, Benotman told
CNN.
Amateur video from the end of October showed a large crowd of militants
affiliated with the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam chanting their
allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The new ISIS wing in Derna
calls itself the "Barqa" provincial division of the Islamic State, the name
given to the eastern region of Libya when Islamic rule replaced the Roman
Empire.
The Libyan branch of ISIS now has a tight grip on the city, controlling the
courts, all aspects of administration, education, and the local radio.
"Derna today looks identical to Raqqa, the ISIS headquarters town in Syria,"
Benotman told CNN.
"ISIS pose a serious threat in Libya. They are well on the way to creating
an Islamic emirate in eastern Libya," Benotman said.
Judges, journalists and army officers have been among dozens targeted for
assassination in Derna this year.
Similarities to Syria
Derna has a long history of Islamist radicalism. Marginalized during the
Gadhafi era, it contributed more foreign fighters per capita to al Qaeda in
Iraq than any other town in the Middle East. It has also provided scores of
fighters for ISIS in Syria.
In another disturbing similarity with Syria, the bodies of three anti-ISIS
activists were found beheaded in the town last week. The group has beheaded
many in Syria, including Western journalists and aid workers.
Two months ago ISIS leader Baghdadi helped orchestrate the take-over of
Derna by dispatching one of his senior aides, Abu Nabil al Anbari, an Iraqi
ISIS veteran who had spent time with Baghdadi, in a U.S. detention facility
in Iraq, according to Benotman.
Helped by Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi, a Saudi preacher who has become Derna's top
religious judge, al Anbari's efforts have borne fruit. Last week a new
pan-Libyan group calling itself "Mujahideen of Libya" declared allegiance to
Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, claiming it was sub-divided into three provinces:
Barqa, Tripoli, and Fezzan (southwest Libya). The ISIS leader responded by
calling all supporters in Libya to join what he called the newest
administrative region of the Islamic caliphate.
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/14/world/meast/isis-war-crimes/index.html> U.N.
panel details ISIS abuses in Syria, says they amount to war crimes
According to Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy, the Islamic State's new province in Libya "could have some
level of viability, at least in the short term" because fighters there are
well-positioned to fund themselves through "trafficking, smuggling and other
black market activities."
Libyan fighters loyal to ISIS have expanded their presence westwards along
the coast, forming chapters in al Bayda, Benghazi (where the Islamist
umbrella group Ansar al Shariah already holds sway), Sirte, al-Khums and
even Tripoli, Benotman told CNN.
The Derna wing of the Islamic State in Libya is the prime suspect in a
suicide bombing last week in Tobruk, the temporary home of Libya's
internationally recognized parliament near the Egyptian border. One person
was killed and 14 wounded. The group is also suspected of carrying out a car
bombing outside Labraq air force base in Al-Bayda, the same day, killing
four.
On Sunday the Derna wing claimed it had previously dispatched nine suicide
bombers from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to carry out attacks against Libyan
security forces in and around Benghazi. Several of the attacks appear to
correspond to previously unclaimed suicide bombings in the area, including a
twin-attack on a Libyan special forces camp in Benghazi on July 23 and an
October 2 attack on a military checkpoint near Benina airport.
Also on Sunday, an ISIS-linked Twitter account suggested the Tripoli wing
was responsible for car bomb attacks last Thursday outside the Egyptian and
UAE embassies in the capital, according to the SITE Intelligence group.
In its audio message last week, the Mujahideen of Libya threatened "the
secularists and parliamentarians and their pillars from the police,
army...."
"We have prepared for you from the most bitter of cups, and the worst of
deaths," it said.
Concerns in Egypt
Islamist-leaning militias from Misrata seized control of Tripoli in the
summer, forcing the parliament to relocate. They are suspected of shipping
arms to ISIS fighters in the east of Libya. Benotman says the Libyan air
force destroyed one of those shipments earlier this month; CNN was not able
to independently confirm the arms shipments.
But there are other signs that more secular forces in Libya are beginning to
strike back at ISIS supporters. Libyan air force jets bombed their positions
in Derna last week. According to Benotman, they struck five Islamic State
positions in the area, including command centers and training camps, killing
six fighters and injuring 20.
"Most of the local population in Derna are opposed to the takeover by the
Islamic State, but, with the complete absence of any central government
presence, they are not in a position to do much for now. Local tribes are
reluctant to move against them because people have relatives who have joined
their ranks," Benotman told CNN.
Egypt, which has strongly backed the anti-Islamist coalition in Tobruk, has
grown increasingly concerned about the ISIS presence in eastern Libya. In
July gunmen suspected of being part of Ansar Beit al Maqdis, an Egyptian
jihadi group, attacked an Egyptian desert border post, killing 21 soldiers.
Ansar Beit al Maqdis has also pledged allegiance to ISIS -- raising concerns
that it may cooperate with the Islamic State supporters in Libya. Egyptian
officials say a significant number of Ansar al Beit's weapons originated in
Libya.
Back in August British Prime Minister David Cameron warned that if ISIS
"succeeds, we would be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the
Mediterranean." He may not have imagined that months later ISIS would have
an outpost not far from the shores of southern Europe.
Map showing location of Derna in LibyaMap showing location of Derna in Libya
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