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. Continue..
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment