Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's video message: Sri Lanka massacre was revenge for the defeat of Baghouz
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has praised the terrorist attack in Sri Lanka that killed 250 people in a video message after a five-year absence. He said the operation was revenge for ISIS's defeat in Baghouz, the last stronghold of the "Islamic State" in Syria.
After a five-year absence, the leader of the "Islamic State" (ISIS) once again sent a message to his followers and enemies in a propaganda video.
In a video released on Monday, April 29, on media outlets close to ISIS, including Al-Furqan, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi refers to the end of the March fighting and the defeat of ISIS in the city of Baghouz, ISIS's last stronghold in eastern Syria and the border areas with Iraq.
In the video, Baghdadi says that the Sri Lankan attacks, which killed 250 people, were carried out in revenge for the defeat of Baghouz.
According to the German news agency, the ISIS leader says in the video: "Your brothers in Sri Lanka, with their suicide bombings, soothed the hearts of the monotheistic members of the "Islamic State", and thus, during Easter, they shook the beds of Christian crusaders to avenge the blood of the Baghouz brothers."
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi added in the video: "This is part of the revenge that the Crusaders must expect."
The city of Baghouz, the last area under ISIS control, fell into the hands of the “Syrian Democratic Forces” on March 22, 2019. The force’s spokesman announced a complete victory over ISIS.
Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said that the city of Baghouz near the Iraqi border had been completely captured, thus destroying the geographical "caliphate" of the terrorist group known as the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant." ISIS had managed to conquer a large area in Iraq and Syria five years ago. Baghouz was the group's last stronghold.
This latest battle left hundreds of ISIS fighters dead and thousands captured. Following this defeat, some ISIS militants retreated to the deserts around Baghouz in Syria.
It is not yet clear where the 18-minute video was recorded. It shows Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sitting cross-legged with his back to a cushion, talking to three men whose faces are covered.
Over the past years, news of his injury, illness, and even death had been reported many times in some reports, but in this video, at least on the surface, there is no sign of physical injury on him.
The US government has placed a $25 million bounty on his head.
Al-Baghdadi last sent a video message and declared the caliphate during his sermon at the Grand Mosque of Nouri in Mosul in early July 2014. In that video, he called on Muslims to pledge allegiance to his caliphate.
Source: DW
