IS leader calls for continued jihad
(Baonghean.vn) - Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), has returned. In a 55-minute message broadcast on August 22 to IS supporters, Al-Baghdadi called on his supporters to continue the "holy war".
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| Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of IS. Photo: Internet |
This is the first time Al-Baghdadi has appeared in public in nearly a year. He last appeared on September 28, 2017, when he called on jihadists - who are being hunted in Syria and Iraq - to continue "fighting the enemy".
The message was broadcast on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival marking the end of the great pilgrimage to Mecca, and also at a time when IS has been defeated in Syria. In Iraq, it has been driven out of all city centers after controlling large swathes of territory in both countries.
“Those who forget religion, patience, holy war against the enemy and the authenticity of the promise to the Creator are destroyed and defeated. Those who stick (to holy war) will win…”, that is one of the many messages that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi instilled in his followers.
After reports of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's death, Iraqi authorities believe he is still alive somewhere in Syria, along the border with Iraq. Earlier in July, Iraqi intelligence announced that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's son, Houdhayfah Al-Badri, had been killed by three Russian guided missiles targeting a cave where he was hiding.
The US has announced that it will donate $25 million to capture the leader of IS, an organization that was founded in 2014 and quickly took over a large part of Syria and about a third of Iraq. Currently, after a major military campaign by the Iraqi army with the help of the US-led International Coalition against IS, the jihadists have been driven out. In Syria, IS continues to lose ground to the Kurdish-Arab forces supported by the International Coalition and the forces of President Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia. At this point, IS only remains in some areas of the central and eastern desert of Syria.
In June 2017, Russia said Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was likely killed in an airstrike in late May near Raqqa, the former capital of IS in Syria. However, three months later, a senior US military official said the IS leader was likely alive and hiding in the Euphrates Valley in eastern Syria.