ISIS releases new Al Baghdadi message calling for attacks on Saudi Arabia and Turkey
The Islamic State has posted a new audio message purportedly from its Caliph Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, promising there will be no retreat from Mosul and calling on Islamic State followers to ‘hold their ground.”
Entitled "This is what Allah and his messenger promised us," Baghdadi cites verses from the Koran as alluding to the current circumstances, namely a war against Muslims led by “Crusaders and Jews.”
Baghdadi calls for attacks on Turkey and Saudi Arabia, referring to the Saudi Muslim Brotherhood as “brothers of the devil” and “apostates spearheading the fight against the Islamic State.”
He also warns Iraqi Sunnis that Shiite Muslims are doing “everything possible” to take over Iraq.
Baghdadi references the killing of Abu Mohamed Al Adnani, a chief propagandist for the Islamic State who died in a coalition airstrike last month as well as Abu Mohamed al-Furqan who was killed a few weeks ago. These references could be part of an attempt to silence detractors by time stamping the release as newly recorded.
Baghdadi mourns Adnani as the one who built the "edifice of the caliphate".
He also lauds Islamic State operations in Libya telling them they turned the West's agenda upside down and advises those who cannot join the caliphate in Syria and Iraq to head to Libya.
The audio, if proven to be authentic, would be the third release since Baghdadi declared himself Caliph in June 2014.