ISIS finds support in Libya (video)

(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.

Map showing location of Derna in Libya

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A woman scrapes ice from her car's windshield in the parking lot of a grocery store in Minneapolis, November 10, 2014. REUTERS/Eric Miller

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Temperatures in all 50 U.S. states dipped to freezing or below on Tuesday as an unseasonably cold blast of weather moved across the country while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people.

Every U.S. state, including Hawaii, was bitten by temperatures at the freezing point of 32 degrees F (0 C) or below, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

It was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. Typically, such cold is not seen until late December through February, the NWS said.

Parts of Erie County, western New York, had 60 inches (1.5 m) of snow, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo.

County officials said on Tuesday there had been four storm-related deaths. One person was killed in a traffic accident and three others died after suffering heart problems, two of whom were believed to have been shoveling heavy snow at the time.

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A lake-effect snow storm with freezing temperatures produces a wall of snow travelling over Lake Eri …

Snow fell at a rate of up to five inches (13 cm) an hour and some areas approached the U.S. record for 24-hour snowfall totals of 76 inches (193 cm), the NWS said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for 10 counties. National Guard troops were deployed to help residents cope with the storm.

A total of three to four feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) of snow was expected in many areas of western New York and as much as six feet (1.8 meters) elsewhere, the NWS said.

A 140-mile (225-km) stretch of the New York State Thruway along Lake Erie and Lake Ontario was closed. Bans on driving were implemented in some places.

A bus carrying the Niagara University women's basketball team has been stuck on the Thruway since 2 a.m., the school said.

In the south of the United States, states were bracing for a record chill from the Arctic-born cold that swept the Rocky Mountains last week.

In Florida, freezing temperatures were expected through Wednesday morning, the NWS said.

"I can't stand it," said Robin Roy, 53, shivering underneath a rainbow-colored poncho at an outdoor market in Gulfport, Florida. "I've never liked the cold."

(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Gulfport, Fla., Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Ellen Wulfhorst in New York and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Gareth Jones)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign policy chief on Wednesday claimed that Ukraine's decision to freeze budget payments to the eastern rebel-held territories could be a precursor to a military onslaught.

Ukrainian officials announced earlier this month that they will freeze the $2.6 billion in state support to the areas now in rebel hands, which could further worsen the deplorable economic situation there.

In an address to the parliament, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he suspects that by doing so, Kiev is "preparing the ground for another invasion in order to solve the issue by force."

Dozens of armored trucks, artillery and other heavy weaponry were seen moving around rebel-held areas in the past weeks, fueling fears of the resumption of the hostilities there. Despite the cease-fire, civilians and combatants still are dying in daily shelling.

Fearing an imminent escalation in hostilities, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier this month announced a deployment of additional troops to the east to defend cities still under government control.

Heavy artillery earlier this week damaged a water filter station that supplies most of Donetsk, the largest city under separatist control. The Donetsk mayor's office said in a statement on Wednesday that a majority of neighborhoods have no running water while the remaining capacities are used for central heating.

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As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticized Russia for staging a "serious military buildup" and sending troops and weapons across its border, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk advocated new "Geneva format" talks including the U.S. to de-escalate the crisis. Russia said that framework, which followed April talks in the Swiss city that excluded pro-Russian separatists, would skirt a process that led to a Sept. 5 cease-fire in Minsk, Belarus.

"There is the Minsk format," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today in the Belarusian capital. "Attempts to dissolve this format, to present it in a way that the insurgents, representatives of the southeast, may sit aside while the ‘grownups' agree on what to do -- such attempts are completely illusory."

Lavrov, who later met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow, called on the U.S., the European Union and all other parties to uphold the September agreements and urged the government in Kiev to pursue dialogue with the rebels. There can be no military resolution, Steinmeier said.

‘Keep Working'

"I can understand your skepticism," Steinmeier told reporters in the Russian capital. "But I believe we should keep working to carry out the Minsk protocol."

The conflict shifted into a higher gear after the separatists held Nov. 2 elections condemned byUkraine, the U.S. and the EU as illegitimate. As Russia denies military involvement in the former Soviet republic, it's still funneling troops and weapons into Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.

The Geneva format is "the most acceptable for solving the crisis in the Ukrainian-Russian relationship," according to Yatsenyuk. Russia was seriously violating the Minsk agreement, which has been broken almost daily, he said in Kiev today.

"Russia is still escalating the situation," he said. "We urge Russia to pull back its forces, its agents, its artillery, its howitzers and its tanks and to stop this mess, which is directly created and crafted by the Russian regime."

Four-way talks in Geneva in April led to an agreement to ease tension following Putin's March annexation of the Crimean peninsula. The pact later unraveled as fighting intensified in the conflict, which has killed more than 4,100 people and wounded almost 10,000, according to UN estimates.

"Russia is still destabilizing Ukraine," Stoltenberg said today in Brussels. "We see the movement of troops, of equipment, of tanks, of artillery and also advanced air defense systems. This is in violation of the cease-fire agreements."

Six Ukrainian troops were killed and nine wounded in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said today in Kiev. Rebels shelled government positions 28 times in the past day, the Defense Ministry in Kiev said in a statement.

EU foreign ministers decided during a meeting yesterday to impose additional travel bans and asset freezes against separatists involved in the Nov. 2 ballots and will release the names by the end of the month. The bloc left unclear whether Russian supporters of the breakaway states in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions would also be targeted.

They stopped short of stiffer economic sanctions against Russian companies or industries, and may deliberate the matter again at a Dec. 18-19 summit.

"Targeted measures against individuals are a must," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told reporters. "They're working. They have effect, in spite of some denials."

The EU has blacklisted 119 Russians and Ukrainians, including at least eight officials and military officers from the breakaway regions. Sanctions require unanimity among the 28 governments in the bloc, which have struggled to overcome divisions over how to deal with Russia.

Russia won't ask the U.S. and the EU to lift sanctions, Lavrov said during a visit to Belarus. He called the penalties a "road to nowhere."

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To contact the reporters on this story: Volodymyr Verbyany in Kiev at vverbyany1@bloomberg.net; Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at akudrytski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Paul Abelsky, Tony Halpin