This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

It is a warm October evening in Derna, a small town on Libya’s north east coast, 450 miles from the capital, Tripoli.

The main square is packed with young men, brought by a summons from the town’s self-proclaimed emir to swear allegiance to a newly formed Islamic caliphate.

The emir, on a stage just visible through the jumping throng, calls for the crowd to repeat his calls to join the a caliphate, to listen and follow orders, and to acclaim that the Islamic State (Isis) is here to stay.

To each call, they repeat the chant, roaring their support – and with that, the emir declares Derna the first town in Libya to join the Islamic State, making common cause with fighters in Iraq and Syria.

This week, the Pentagon went public with its concerns, when the commander of the US army’s Africa Command told reporters that Isis – also known as Isil – is now running training camps in Libya, where as many as 200 fighters are receiving instruction.

“Isil has begun its efforts over in the east out there,” said General David Rodriguez. “It’s mainly about people coming for training and logistics support right now.”

Isis units recently staged a show of force in Derna, with 60 jeeps packed with black-clad fighters parading around the town.

Their leader, or emir, is Saudi preacher Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi, who arrived from abroad in September. Backing him up are two to three hundred fighters, mostly Libyans, with combat experience in Syria. Under their control, Derna is being cleared of opponents, with a string of assassinations of judges, government officials and activists.

In November the severed heads of three young activists were discovered in the town. El Azdi has set himself up as Derna’s supreme judge in the requisitioned courthouse, dispensing executions and floggings.

The floggings are carried out on a raised platform outside the courthouse, the executions by balaclava-wearing men in the football stadium. Police cars sport the Isis logo, black flags hang from buildings and at night blue neon signs flash the Isis message from shops and lampposts, according to local sources.

Schools have been ordered to separate male and female pupils and shops forbidden from displaying clothes on female mannequins.

“Everyone is nervous of them, there were protests but nobody wants to protest now,” said one man whose family recently fled the city.

The US has stepped up surveillance in recent days, with drones and electronic surveillance planes based in Italy making constant flights. Officials worry about Isis leaping beyond its present confines in Iraq and Syria, with Libya a tempting target, rich in oil and close to Europe’s southern shores.

As in Iraq and Syria, Libya’s chaos may prove the greatest asset for Isis to grow. Militia infighting which plagued the country since the 2011 revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi exploded into open war in the summer.

The country now has two governments; one of rebels in Tripoli, the other having fled to the east.

US officials caution that Libya’s Isis may be a “copycat” operation rather than being directed by Isis commanders in Iraq and Syria, but some terrorist experts say the distinction is false, because Isis works as a “franchise”, exporting leaders to create fresh enclaves.

“In places like Yemen, Libya, their intention is to get as many groups around the world to swear allegiance,” said Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London.

“It’s the ‘oil spill’ strategy. They form enclaves, then they grow and connect together.”

Derna has a long history of jihadist resistance. In the 1990s, its young men flocked to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which battled the Gaddafi regime in the nearby Green Mountain.

Defeated by government troops, the group’s members fled to Afghanistan and Iraq. US forces seized a register of al-Qaida’s foreign fighters in Iraq in 2006, the subsequent report saying that no town in the world supplied more foreign fighters, per head of population, than Derna.

Within Derna, Isis has vanquished militias from al-Qaida and the Islamist Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade. The biggest problem it faces in spreading beyond Derna may be winning over a population at present in a state of fear.

“It will be a challenge for Isis to show they can rule. That’s the downside of running a state: with power comes responsibility,” said Neumann.

• This article was amended on 22 December 2014 to correct the spelling of Peter Neumann’s name.

