ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has appeared in a new video for the first time in nearly five years, vowing to get revenge for his dead militants and claiming the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka were in retaliation for his group's defeat in Syria. The leader of the Islamist group gave his last sermon at the Great Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, in July 2014.
He has not appeared in a video since announcing the creation of the so-called caliphate from the pulpit of the Al-Nuri mosque nearly five years ago in a clip played around the world.
In the video Baghdadi vowed his militants would get revenge on the West for the group's defeat in Iraq and Syria and claimed the Sri Lankan Easter bombings were part of their 'battle of attrition'.
Nearly a week after claiming responsibility for the Sri Lanka terror attack, ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has released a video. The 18-minute video came has Baghdadi appearing after a hiatus of five years. The video puts aside the rumours of the ISIS chief succumbing in an air strike.
It is also confirmed that Baghdadi is operating from his secret location and the message is clearly intended to increase the ISIS recruits and fighters. It also intended to reinforce a serious security threat to countries across much of the world. Though Baghdadi seems to have aged, it appears that he is in good health.
Both the foreign intelligence agencies, as well as the Indian intelligence, are carefully evaluating Baghdadi's speech which is apparently aimed at increasing radicalisation by splinter and IS-inspired groups in India and abroad.
