CAIRO -- The Islamic State released a video Sunday that appears to show fighters from its branches in southern and eastern Libya executing dozens of Ethiopian Christians by beheading and other captives by shooting.
Prefaced by extensive speeches and interviews that appear to take place in the Islamic State's strongholds in Syria and Iraq, the footage of the killings, if confirmed, would be the first evidence that the group's leaders in those countries are coordinating with fighters under the group's banner in those parts of Libya, compounding fears of its expansion across the Mediterranean.
The Islamic State had released a video in February that appeared to show masked fighters in its western Libyan branch, the so-called "Tripolitanian province" of the Islamic State, beheading 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who had been abducted in the city of Sirte. The group has now established control of Sirte, and its fighters there are sporadically battling militia troops from the nearby city of Misrata.
The video released Sunday appears to show Islamic State fighters with the Ethiopian Christians in its eastern "Barqa province" and a separate group of captives in its "Fezzan province" in southern Libya. The video then switches between footage of the captives in the south being shot dead and the Ethiopians in the east being beheaded on a beach. It was not immediately possible to estimate how many captives were killed or confirm their identities.
Released via militant social media accounts and websites, the video could not be independently verified. However, it corresponded to other videos released by the Islamic State and bore the symbol of its al-Furqan media arm.
Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Ethiopian government, said officials were in contact with its embassy in Cairo to verify the video's authenticity. Hussein said he believed those killed likely were Ethiopian refugees hoping to reach Europe. Libya has become a hub for refugees across Africa hoping to cross the Mediterranean to enter Europe for work and better lives.
"If this is confirmed, it will be a warning to people who wish to risk and travel to Europe though the dangerous route," Hussein said.
Abba Kaletsidk Mulugeta, an official with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church's Patriarchate Office, said he also believed the victims likely were refugees.
"I believe this is just another case of the IS group killing Christians in the name of Islam. Our fellow citizens have just been killed on a faith-based violence that is totally unacceptable. This is outrageous," Mulugeta said. "No religion orders the killing of other people, even people from another religion."
Ethiopia long has drawn the anger of Islamic extremists over its military's attacks on neighboring Somalia, whose population is almost entirely Muslim. While the militant in the video at one point said "Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap," it did not specifically mention the Ethiopian government's actions.
Militants in Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan, Nigeria and elsewhere have all pledged loyalty to the Islamic State and its self-declared caliphate, but Libya is the first country outside the group's territory in Syria and Iraq where its core leadership has demonstrated practical communication and collaboration with its far-flung "provinces."
Fighters in the three regions of Libya had previously claimed responsibility for various acts of violence carried out in the Islamic State's name, but most analysts presumed that most of those fighters, at least the ones outside of Sirte, were operating independently and using the name to capitalize on the group's reputation.
Now, fighters in all three provinces appear connected enough to the core group's leadership that they were able to coordinate separate, mass executions, film them and send the footage back to Syria or Iraq for production and release.
The video starts with what it called a history of Christian-Muslim relations, followed by scenes of militants destroying churches, graves and icons. A masked fighter brandishing a pistol delivers a long statement, saying Christians must convert to Islam or pay a special tax prescribed by the Koran.
During the last five minutes of the half-hour video, the footage cuts back and forth between scenes in the southern desert and a beach along the coast, at one point displaying both with a split screen. Both settings were filmed with the same sophisticated camera angles and editing that has distinguished other Islamic State films from indigenous Libyan videos.
Masked fighters lead a row of bound captives dressed in black into the desert and then shoot each of the prisoners in the back of the head. Another group of masked fighters leads a row of prisoners in orange jumpsuits along a beach and then beheads each of them with a long knife, placing the severed heads on the bodies lying on the sand as bloody surf washes over them.
"You will not have safety even in your dreams until you accept Islam," declares a masked figure, speaking English with an American accent. "To the nation of the cross: We are back again."
Of all the places the militants have used the group's name, Libya may also be uniquely vulnerable to penetration because of the collapse of any central authority since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi four years ago.
Over the past nine months, its feuding militias and city-states have split into two main warring factions -- one controls the capital, Tripoli, and the other including the internationally recognized government has fled to the eastern cities of Tobruk and Bayda. Both factions have so far appeared more concerned with fighting each other than uniting to stop the Islamic State's expansion.
What's more, Libyan banks and homes still hold significant wealth. Vast oil deposits wait below ground, and the country's long Mediterranean coast is a useful departure point to destinations in Europe or around the region.
Ethiopia's options to retaliate remain slim, given its distance from Libya. However, Egyptian Ambassador to Ethiopia Mohammed Edrees said Cairo could partner with Addis Ababa to strike the militants.
"That could be an option," Edrees said. "We will see and explore what is possible to deal with the group."
Edrees said Ethiopian officials had yet to approach Egypt to discuss the idea.
After the February killings of the Coptic Christians, Egypt's military responded with airstrikes targeting the militant stronghold of Darna. It has not launched further strikes, though its president is trying to form a pan-Arab military force to respond to extremist threats in the region.
The Islamic State, which grew out of al-Qaida's former Iraqi affiliate, now holds about a third of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate.
Clashes in Kirkuk
Meanwhile Sunday, the U.S.-led coalition said Kurdish forces recaptured 11 villages in Iraq's Kirkuk province from the Islamic State after days of intense clashes. The coalition said the area of about 25 square miles was south of the city of Kirkuk.
The coalition also said Sunday that Iraqi forces had full control over the country's Beiji oil refinery, the nation's largest. Islamic State fighters had been targeting it for days in attacks and briefly held a small portion of the sprawling complex.
In Anbar province, the extremists recently captured three villages near the city of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital about 70 miles west of Baghdad, and remain locked in heavy clashes with Iraqi troops. More than 90,000 people have fled the militants' advance there, a United Nations humanitarian agency said.
"Our top priority is delivering life-saving assistance to people who are fleeing -- food, water and shelter are highest on the list of priorities," Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a statement. "Seeing people carrying what little they can and rushing for safety is heart-breaking."
Iraqi commanders say they are rushing police and military reinforcements to Ramadi to prevent the city from being overrun. Street battles have been raging in the city and in outlying suburbs and towns, authorities say.
Video from Iraq has shown columns of civilians fleeing the Ramadi area, carrying what few possessions they could manage to bring with them. Many escapees carried young children.
Many fleeing Anbar have found shelter in western and southern suburbs of Baghdad, the capital. Because of security concerns, Iraqi authorities are reportedly restricting the numbers entering Baghdad.
Iraqi troops backed by Shiite militias and U.S.-led airstrikes managed to dislodge the Islamic State from the northern city of Tikrit earlier this month. But the troops have struggled against the militants in Anbar, which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year U.S. military occupation that ended in 2011.
Internal conflict in Iraq has led to the displacement of at least 2.7 million Iraqis since 2014, according to the U.N. The numbers have increased significantly since Islamic State militants overran much of northern Iraq from June to August last year.
More than 500,000 people fled last year as the extremists overran the northern city of Mosul and nearby areas. Many of those displaced were Christians, Shiite Muslims and members of the Yazidi sect, all fearing persecution at the hands of Islamic State, an extremist Sunni group.
Information for this article was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick and Merna Thomas of The New York Times; by Jon Gambrell, Elias Meseret, Joseph Krauss Merrit Kennedy and Vivian Salama of The Associated Press; and by Patrick J. McDonnell of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 04/20/2015