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Sydney /AFP
The reclusive leader of the IS group broke a nearly year-long silence as Iraqi forces closed in on Mosul on Thursday, urging his extremists to hold their ground.
It was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s first statement since Iraqi forces launched a massive offensive on October 17 to retake Mosul, where the IS chief declared the group’s “caliphate” two years ago.
“Do not retreat,” Baghdadi said in a purported message released by an IS-affiliated outlet. “Holding your ground with honour is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame.”
In June 2014, days after extremist fighters swept across swathes of Iraq, he made a rare public appearance in Mosul and announced the creation of so called ‘state’ straddling Iraq and Syria.
The “caliphate” has been shrinking steadily since last year and Iraqi forces earlier this week reached the outskirts of Mosul, the extremists last major stronghold in Iraq.
If authentic, the recording entitled “This is what God and his messenger have promised us”, would be Baghdadi’s first since December 2015 and a rare sign of life.
Rumours have swirled about the Iraqi extremist leader’s health and movements but his whereabouts are unclear.
IS has fallen back when massively outnumbered in recent battles, giving up some of its emblematic bastions—such as Fallujah in Iraq and Dabiq in Syria—without following its own apocalyptic ideology of fighting to the bitter end. In his latest message, which is undated but makes reference to events that are at most a few weeks old, Baghdadi also calls for attacks against Saudi Arabia—a favourite target—and Turkey.
Ankara has troops stationed at a base just outside Mosul and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s escalating rhetoric has raised fears of a unilateral Turkish intervention in Iraq.
Baghdadi also said that his followers who could not travel to Syria or Iraq should aim for Libya and urged all IS fighters to remain united in adversity.
He attempted to stir up sectarian resentment by referring to religious flags and slogans of Shiite fighters among Iraqi forces and by accusing other Sunni groups and politicians of treason.
The recapture of Mosul by Iraqi forces could spell the end of the group’s days as a land-holding force in Iraq and deal a death blow to the “caliphate”.