al-Baghdadi Archives

ISIS supreme leader al-Baghdadi calls on fighters to stand firm during Mosul battle

November 3, 2016 by administrator

The Islamic State’s (ISIS) supreme leader and self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Thursday called on his followers to keep up the fight, to not flee, and to attack Turkish forces in Iraq and Syria, while his caliphate is increasingly losing territory under attack by Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Mosul.
This is the first audio tape released by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi since December last year, Aranews.net reports.
The key ISIS deputy and spokesperson Mohammed al-Adnani was killed in al-Bab in August this year.
Under the banner “this is what God and his Messenger have promised us“, al-Baghdadi’s 30-minute audio statement called on his followers who cannot go to Syria and Iraq to head to Libya.

He also called on his followers to obey their emirs, and pay more attention to sins than to the enemies.
In a surprising statement, the ISIS head for the first time called for attacks on Turkey inside Iraq and Syria, calling Turkey an ‘apostate’ state.

Al-Baghdadi’s statement comes four days after the US ordered Istanbul consulate staff members to leave Turkey, fearing ISIS attacks.
The ISIS leader also called for attacks on Saudi Arabia.
He also demanded the ‘soldiers of the caliphate’ to stand firm in front of coalition jets, and said
that the coalition was formed after they saw Muslims lived under the caliphate in dignity.
Al-Baghdadi considered the number of forces aligned to fight ISIS as a testament to the strength of ISIS.
The ISIS leader cited a Quranic verse, says the “coalitions” amassed to storm Mosul are evidence of what God has promised the Muslims.
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s statement is the fastest in tempo and strongest among his speeches, clearly wants fiercest fighting to protect areas,” Hassan Hassan, co-author of NYT bestseller
‘ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror’ said.
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reassures followers that stronger enemies doesn’t mean they’re better
and calls on them not to flee the battlefield,” he added.
Furthermore, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi tried to frame the war as a sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis, according to Rita Katz, Director of SITE Intelligence Group.
Al-Baghdadi said that the Shiites are trying to do everything to take over the power in Iraq, suggesting ISIS is the only solution.

Iraqi Air Force strikes convoy of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi – military statement

October 11, 2015 by administrator

A photo of the Daesh Takfiri group chief, Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, from US Army files relating to his time as a detainee in Iraq.

Iraq’s Air Force has struck the convoy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but his fate is unknown, says a military statement cited by Reuters.

“Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh [ISIS] commanders,” the statement read.

The military gave no information about the fate of the terrorist leader.

Hospital sources and local residents have told Reuters that ISIS leaders were killed in the airstrike, but that al-Baghdadi wasn’t among them.

The convoy was attacked on Sunday in western Anbar province, at a location not far from the Syrian border, where Baghdadi was known to be meeting Islamic State commanders.

“The location of the meeting was also bombed and many of the group’s leaders were killed and wounded. The fate of the murderer al-Baghdadi is unknown and he was carried away by a vehicle. His health condition is still unclear,” the military said, according to Reuters.

Wife and child of Islamic State leader Baghdadi arrested in Lebanon

December 2, 2014 by administrator

The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State (Isis), as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials have said.

The woman was identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi, by a Lebanese security official and a senior political source.

The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported she had been detained in coordination with “foreign intelligence”.

The arrest is a blow to Baghdadi and could be used as a bargaining chip against his group, which has captured many foreign, Iraqi and Syrian prisoners and declared a caliphate in territory it has seized in Syria and Iraq.

A senior Lebanese security official said Baghdadi’s wife had been travelling with one of their daughters, contradicting earlier reports that it was his son. DNA tests were conducted to verify it was Baghdadi’s child, the official said.

They were detained in northern Lebanon. Investigators were questioning her at the Lebanese defence ministry. There was no immediate reaction from Islamic State websites.

Dulaimi was one of 150 women released from a Syrian government jail in March as part of a prisoner swap that led to the release of 13 nuns taken captive by al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria, according to media reports at the time.

A source with contacts with Iraqi intelligence said the captured woman was an Iraqi wife of Baghdadi’s, but could not confirm the name. There was cooperation between Iraqi and Lebanese authorities leading up to her capture, the source said.

Baghdadi has three wives, two Iraqis and one Syrian, according to tribal sources in Iraq.

Islamic State has seized wide areas of Iraq and Syria, Lebanon’s neighbour to the east.

The Lebanese security forces have cracked down on the group’s sympathisers and the intelligence services have been extra vigilant on the borders with Syria.

Over the past few months they have arrested dozens of militants suspected of staging attacks to expand Isis influence in Lebanon.

A US-led alliance is seeking to roll back Isis’s territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. Barack Obama has vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Baghdadi’s group, which is seeking to reshape the Middle East according to its radical vision of Islam.

Spillover from the Syrian conflict has repeatedly jolted neighbouring Lebanon. Militants affiliated to the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State are demanding the release of Islamists held by the Lebanese authorities in exchange for 27 members of the Lebanese security forces taken captive in August.

Isis includes thousands of foreign fighters and its leadership draws from militants with combat experience in Iraq.

The United States is offering $10 million for information leading to the location, arrest, or conviction of Baghdadi, an Iraqi.

Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech purported to be in his name last month.

He said his self-declared caliphate was expanding in Saudi Arabia and four other Arab countries and called for “volcanoes of jihad” the world over in the speech released on 13 November.

Photo surfaces of Baghdadi’s ‘slain’ ISIS aide

November 10, 2014 by administrator

Sources told Al Arabiya News Channel Saturday that Baghdadi (R) was ‘critically wounded’ and his close aide, Abu Suja (L), was killed. (Photo courtesy: The Telegraph/Reuters)

An image of the close aide of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to have been killed in a U.S.-led air strike on a convoy of militants in Iraq, was revealed on Sunday.

The aide Auf Abdulrahman Elefery, who went by the code name Abu Suja, was reportedly killed after the strike, which targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel on Saturday.

The fate of Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militant group, remains unclear following reports stating he had been critically injured in the strike.

“He [Abu Suja] and Baghdadi were rarely separate. It’s for this reason that it could be possible that Baghdadi was with him [at the time of the attack],” Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi security strategist, told The Telegraph, which posted the image of Abu Suja.

Iraqi officials said Sunday Baghdadi was wounded in an air strike over the weekend, the Associated Press reported.

Pentagon officials, however, said they had no immediate information on such a strike or Baghdadi being wounded, the agency said.

Both Iraq’s Defense and Interior Ministries issued statements saying Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating, the AP reported.

On Saturday, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel that Baghdadi was “critically wounded” when an air strike targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim. They said other senior ISIS members were killed in the air strike that targeted a gathering of ISIS leaders.

The Associated Press on Sunday quoted an Iraqi Interior Ministry intelligence official as saying the strike happened early Saturday in the town which is located in Iraq’s Anbar province.

The official, citing informants within the militant group, said the strikes wounded Baghdadi, AP reported.

A senior Iraqi military official also said he learned in operational meetings that Baghdadi had been wounded, the agency also said.

Neither knew the extent of Baghdadi’s apparent injuries.

Both officials said the operation was carried out by Iraqi security forces. Neither knew the extent of Baghdadi’s apparent injuries