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Islamic State's Baghdadi, in undated audio, urges militants to keep fighting

By Nadine Awadalla and Eric Knecht

 

A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi making what would have been his first public appearance, at a mosque in the centre of Iraq's second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014, in this still image taken from video. REUTERS/Social Media Website via Reuters TV/File Photo

 

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has exhorted followers across the world to wage attacks against the West and to keep fighting in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

 

The message released on Thursday was his first purported audio communication in almost a year during which his jihadist group lost much of its self-proclaimed "caliphate".

 

The audio, partly dedicated to religious scriptures, came after several reports Baghdadi had been killed. His last recording was in November 2016, two weeks after the start of the battle to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS).

 

"Oh Soldiers of the Caliphate, fan the flames of war on your enemies, take it to them and besiege them in every corner, and stand fast and courageous."

 

"Beware of retreat, or the feeling of defeat, beware of negotiations or surrender. Do not lay down your arms," Baghdadi said, referring to followers in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, North Africa and elsewhere in Africa.

 

The date of the 46-minute recording, released via the Al-Furqan news organisation, was not clear. But in it, Baghdadi makes an apparent reference to recent events including North Korean threats against Japan and United States and the recapture two months ago of Mosul by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.

 

Since Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria in 2014, Iraqi forces have retaken a string of cities in western and northern Iraq including Mosul, where Baghdadi made his announcement from the city's El Nuri mosque.

 

Western-backed Syrian forces are also thrusting into the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, Islamic State's operational headquarters from where it plotted many of the attacks that have killed hundreds of people around the world.

 

Baghdadi also called for attacks on Western media, saying: "Oh soldiers of Islam in every location, increase blow after blow, and make the media centres of the infidels, from where they wage their intellectual wars, among the targets."

 

"Continue your Jihad and your blessed operations and do not let the crusaders rest in their homes and enjoy life and stability while your brethren are being shelled and killed."

 

The fall of Mosul in July effectively marked the end of the Iraqi half of Baghdadi's "caliphate" even though Islamic State continues to fight in some territory outside of Mosul, the largest city they came to control in both Iraq and Syria.

 

An IS branch in Libya was also defeated last year in the city of Sirte, where they had set up a North African beachhead in 2014. In Egypt's northern Sinai, another affiliated militant group is still fighting Egyptian military forces.

 

"With God's will and his strength, we are staying determined, patient...The abundance of killing will not stop us," Baghdadi said in the audio recording.

 

Officials have said they believed it could take years to capture or kill Baghdadi as he is thought to be hiding in a vast swathe of sparsely-populated desert between Mosul and Raqqa, where attacking drones are easy to spot.

 

The United States has offered a $25 million bounty for information that would locate Baghdadi.

 

Russia's defence ministry said earlier this year it might have killed Baghdadi in an air strike on a gathering of IS commanders on the outskirts of Raqqa. But U.S. officials said they could not corroborate the death and other Western as well as Iraqi officials were sceptical.

 

(Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem; Writing by Patrick Markey and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-29

[klauskunkel]

"Oh idiots of the caliphate, continue to die for me, while I safely play with myself. Lay down your life, while I lay down in comfort. Be sure that you will be rewarded in the afterlife with 3 goats and a sack of hummus. Snackbar."

[BuaBS]

5 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

"Oh idiots of the caliphate, continue to die for me, while I safely play with myself. Lay down your life, while I lay down in comfort. Be sure that you will be rewarded in the afterlife with 3 goats and a sack of hummus. Snackbar."

Don't forget the virgins !!

 

 

Are there much ISIS fighters left in Syria ? They've all gone to europe by now .

[boomerangutang]

The bleatings of a sad man with his back against the wall.

My message to him:  keep calling your idiot moths to the fire of modern weaponry.  It's a way of wiping out hundreds of hot-head ding dongs, though quite expensive.   There must be a lot of young Muslim women with little prospects for getting married.  All the men of eligible age are either dead or screwed-in-the-head with fire-and-brimstone indoctrination. The men know how to rape, though.   That's why there are tens of thousands of young single moms throughout the Middle East.

[vogie]

18 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

Don't forget the virgins !!

 

 

Are there much ISIS fighters left in Syria ? They've all gone to europe by now .

I very much doubt there will be any virgins left, now Hugh Heffner has gone there.

[Stargeezr]

ISIL and the rest of the terrorist groups should all be treated the same, keep killing them off until they are all gone.  The virgin thing has been a false promise since we were all born.  All that waits for the ISIL dead may be some virgin lambs, or pigs.

Geezer