Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: ‘New audio message’ from IS leader released

August 23, 2018 By administrator

The Islamic State group (IS) has released an audio message purportedly from its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his first in almost a year, BBC reports.

In a speech, he calls on IS supporters to “persevere”, despite the losses the group has suffered in Iraq and Syria.

The recording’s authenticity could not be verified, but experts said the voice resembled that heard in other messages.

Although it is undated, there are references to recent events, including the detention of a US pastor in Turkey.

Russia claimed last year that it had probably killed Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria, but US commanders said they believed he was still alive and hiding in a remote area on the Syria-Iraq border.

In July, IS news outlets reported that Baghdadi’s son Hudhayfah had been killed during an IS “commando operation” in the Syrian province of Homs.

Baghdadi – an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri – has not been seen in public since he proclaimed the creation of a “caliphate” from the pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in July 2014.

His last audio message was released in September 2017, two months after Iraqi government forces recaptured Mosul and one month before IS militants were driven from their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa by a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

IS has now been defeated military in Iraq and most of Syria, and many of its fighters, planners, and senior doctrinal, security and military leaders have been killed.

In the audio message published late on Wednesday, August 22, Baghdadi appeared to try to shift attention away from his group’s crippling losses.

“For the Mujahideen [holy warriors] the scale of victory or defeat is not dependent on a city or town being stolen or subject to that who has aerial superiority, intercontinental missiles or smart bombs,” Reuters news agency quoted the recording as saying.

“Oh Caliphate soldiers… trust in God’s promise and His victory… for with hardship comes relief and a way out,” he added.

A UN report published last week said it was still estimated to have between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters across the two countries, including thousands of foreign nationals.

The group still controls small pockets of territory in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, where it has been able to extract and sell some oil, and to mount attacks, including across the border with Iraq.

IS militants are also hiding out in Iraq’s Anbar desert, the Ghadaf valley and Husseiniya.

Syrian Observatory says has ‘confirmed information’ that Islamic State chief al-Baghdadi killed

July 11, 2017 By administrator

Reuters Report citing The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.Russia’s Defence Ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of Islamic State commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been skeptical.

Reuters could not independently verify Baghdadi’s death.

“(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank, in the Islamic State in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zor,” the director of the British-based war monitoring group Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.

Baghdadi’s death had been announced many times before but the Observatory has a track record of credible reporting on Syria’s civil war.

Abdulrahman said Observatory sources in Syria’s eastern town of Deir al-Zor had been told by Islamic State sources that Baghdadi had died “but they did not specify when”.

Iraqi and Kurdish officials did not confirm his death. The U.S. Department of Defence said it had no immediate information corroborate Baghdadi’s death.

Islamic State-affiliated websites and social media feeds have not carried any news regarding the leader’s possible death.

The death of Baghdadi, who declared a caliphate from a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, would be one of the biggest blows yet to the jihadist group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington in Cairo and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Phillip Stewart in Washington; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-baghdadi-idUSKBN19W1AW?il=0&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

ISIS leader al-Baghdadi reportedly killed in Russia-led airstrike – MoD

June 16, 2017 By administrator

On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian aerospace forces’ strike conducted on May 28 allegedly killed Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi south of Raqqa. The report is yet to be confirmed.

The Daesh leader may have been alongside other leaders of the extremist group and 330 terrorists killed in the airstrike.

The ministry said its Su-34 strike aircraft and Su-35 multirole fighter attacked a so-called Daesh military council south of Raqqa in northern Syria on May 28.

“According to information that is checked through various channels, Daesh leader Ibrahim Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed as a result of the strike, was also present at the meeting,” the ministry said in a statement.

“As a result of the Su-35 and Su-34 airstrikes, high-ranking commanders of the terrorist groups who were part of the so-called IS military council, as well as about 30 mid-level field commanders and up to 300 militants of their personal security, have been killed,” the statement read.

The Russian Defense Ministry obtained information about the upcoming “military council” in late-May. The meeting was planned to discuss an exit plan from the Daesh stronghold of Raqqa through the “southern corridor.”

Later in the day, the US-led coalition said that it could not confirm the death of Baghdadi, but noted it would welcome the news if confirmed.

“There have been several past claims of this kind that have been proven false and we have seen no definitive proof that this report is true either,” a coalition spokesperson told Sputnik. “However, the Coalition and the global community would welcome the news of al-Baghdadi’s demise.”

Al-Baghdadi appeared in the media for the first time in 2014 when he declared the creation of a caliphate in the Middle East. Since then, there have been several reports of his death, none of which were confirmed though. On Sunday, the Syrian state television reported that Baghdadi was presumably killed as a result of US strikes in Raqqa.

‘Severe Blow’ to Terrorists

The alleged death of al-Baghdadi could help facilitate the liberation of Raqqa, the de facto capital of Daesh, according to Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Defense and Security.

“Ultimately, this will help solve the task of freeing Raqqa,” Ozerov toldSputnik.

Opinion: Thirty Year’s War in the Middle East?

June 15, 2014 By administrator

DW’s editor-in-chief, Alexander Kudascheff.

The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is in the process of starting a religious war in the Middle East, one that could go on for a very long time,

The situation is downright alarming: an army of crusaders has brought the Middle East to its knees. 10,000 fighters who belong to the Islamist, fundamentalist and murderous group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) are headed for Baghdad with aims of seizing Iraq’s capital city and deposing its president – all in a bid to bring down Iraq’s Shiite rule.

Their objective includes bringing about a reversal of postwar order in the Middle East: an end to nation states, the founding of a new Muslim community, or Ummah, and a caliphate, within which the Sharia is the foundation of the law. ISIS members have already displayed political and religious readiness for a violent conflict, evocative of Jihad, one of the early tenets of Islam that calls believers to martyrdom.

These Sunni Jihadists led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – whose name calls to mind the first of all caliphates, the “descendents” of the Prophet Muhammad – are looking to oust not only President Maliki and the Shiites from Baghdad, however. They have ignited the entire region. Iran has pledged support to stand by Iraqi Shiites and is even considering, as contradictory to traditional political alliances as this may seem, to join sides with Washington. US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has yet to announce plans for how he intends to support Maliki.

Shiite axis

For Tehran, the pledging of support to Iraq’s Shiites is a matter of course, just as it supported President Assad – an Alawite – with the help of Shiite Hezbollah militias in the Syrian civil war.

Iran has a strategic regional interest in upholding the Shiite axis in the Middle East, which comprises Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq and itself: It is a way of securing its influence. But it is also more. It would be unthinkable for Iran’s Ayatollahs and Mullahs, who see themselves in the tradition of Ayatollah Khomeini, to ignore any neighboring Shiites in a time of need. This is grounds for Jihad – a holy war.

There has been civil war in Syria for a long time now, between Assad and the opposition, but also within the opposition itself – between ISIS and the proponents of the secular democracy movement. Almost 200,000 people have died and millions have been displaced, and yet, Assad remains in power: a never-ending blood bath.

And surrounding it stand the other Middle East actors. The Kurds have established themselves in North Iraq and have no fear of ISIS. Their military strength and newly acquired political identity pose a challenge to Turkey, which has had its share of troubles with the chaotic situation on both sides of the border to Syria. Jordan – for years, a state burdened by Palestinian refugees – has had to deal with the second highest influx of Syrian refugees, behind Lebanon. And nobody knows how secure the Jordanian kingdom really is.

Visions of power

And then there’s Saudi Arabia: Iran’s great adversary on the Persian Gulf, its great rival in the struggle for intellectual and spiritual dominance in the Middle East – the keeper of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia follows the ultraconservative teachings of Wahhabism, and is thus a religious state – with a lot of money. It has often been a key supporter of Islamic pursuits abroad, and also played a role in setting up Islamist groups. A kingdom with a double standard: it fears Jihadism and fosters it at the same time, in the hope that it’s never directed towards the Saudi dynasty.

However, the insane vision of an ISIS caliphate would not only incorporate Syria and Iraq; it would also involve Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of the Prophet. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s name alone seems to indicate the power the terrorist is after.

Even if al-Baghdadi were stopped in his attempted conquest, Jihadism wouldn’t be stopped. It would be merely put on hold. This war in Iraq, the battle of Baghdad, is the beginning of an all-out religious war between Shiites and Sunnis. And with it, the Middle East now faces a conflict akin to the Thirty Years War. Israel’s existence has never been this uncertain. And the West won’t be able to watch for long.