the “caliph” of the Islamic State releases his first recording in almost a year

The leader of the Islamic State (IS), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, called on his followers to continue the fight in the first message released by the jihadist group attributed to its highest leader in almost a year and at a time when the organization It has lost almost all its power in Iraq and Syria.«If the faithful abandon their religion, their patience and the jihad against the enemy, they will be defeated. Those who keep the faith are the ones who will succeed. The only way to prove this faith is with the fight,” Al Baghdadi said in a 54-minute recording broadcast on Telegram.The sound message, whose authenticity as usual cannot be verified, is the first attributed to the jihadist leader since September 28, 2017 and was broadcast for the beginning of the Feast of Sacrifice, the most important holiday for Muslims, under the title: «Giving the good news to patients».It is also the first time his words have been heard since the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq last December and the loss of almost all territory in Syria.Although the message has not been dated, the organization’s top leader, who has been presumed dead on several occasions, comments on the news of recent weeks.In the audio he talks about the United States sanctions on Turkey, referring to the request for the release of the “pastor of the crusaders”, in reference to the Protestant Andrew Brunson, detained in Turkey since 2016 for terrorism.He also comments that the northern Syrian region of Idlib, the last stronghold of the rebels and where Islamist factions are present, is “on the verge” of being bombed by Russia and Bashar al Assad’s Syrian Army.He did not forget Washington’s sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea, which “try to rebel and not obey” what he calls American “slum policy.”In this context, he did not hesitate to scold US allies such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, who continue to support his policies despite being Sunni, the same current of Islam that the Islamic State professes.«Wake up from your drunkenness. “Where is your courage in the face of what is happening to the Sunni people in Iraq and the Levant?” asked the supposed voice of Al Baghdadi, scolding the men of “the island of Muhammad”, in reference to Saudi Arabia.With this message, Al Baghdadi seems to want to end months of speculation about his alleged death, in which even in June 2017, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the leader of the Islamic State had died on May 28 of that year at outside Al Raqa, which was the capital of the Islamic State in Syria.”God makes the faithful triumph and sometimes he does not do so in order to put them before a test for reasons that only he knows,” said Al Bagdadi’s voice.In the last minutes of the audio message, interrupted by some recited verses from the Koran, he made it clear that “the flames of battle have not been extinguished” and called on the Sunnis of Iraq and other parts of the world to “raise arms.”Al Baghdadi’s audio messages have been few and his public appearances are limited to the one made in early July 2014 at the Al Nuri mosque in Mosul, where he proclaimed himself the “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria and which was reduced to debris in the last days of the offensive against the city.The message now arises at a time when the Islamic State is cornered in the Syrian desert, bordering Iraq, where various forces such as the Kurds and Bashar al Assad’s Army have launched an offensive to defeat them.Al Baghdadi warned all his followers to “only follow the information from the central media” of the Islamic State, so that they do not allow themselves to be “deceived” by other means. EFEPost navigation