Video: Baghdadi urges resilience among ISIS fighters, attacks Saudi Arabia and Turkey
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. File photo.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=alb96ZjXrWQ%3Frel%3D0
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Islamic State supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has urged his fighters to be resilient in face of Iraqi troops seeking to strip the militant group of its last Iraqi bastion in Mosul.
In an audio clip released by his supporters on the internet, the first since the security offensive began mid October, Baghdadi stressed that the group’s “Caliphate” project has not stumbled.
“Do not retreat … Holding your ground with honor is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame,” he said in the audio message, the authenticity of which could not be verified.
“The raging battle, the all-out war and the grand Jihad the state of Islam is going through today only strengthens our faith and confidence that it is all a prelude to a clear victory.”
Baghdadi urged his supporters to launch attacks against Turkey and Saudi Arabia. He told his militants to “Unleash their anger” on Turkish forces fighting them in Syria. He also called upon them to target Saudi royal family members, government officials and security forces, accusing them of “partaking with infidel nations in their war against Islam and Sunnis in Iraq and Syria.”
Baghdadi’s last voice message was made in December, when he assured his troops that Russian and US-led coalition airstrikes in Syria had failed to weaken the group.