ISIS releases new audio message supposedly from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS is trying to hold on to their remaining pockets by trapping civilians to use as human shields, but a USA defense official said the SDF has been able to rescue about 300 of those civilians over the past week.

Much of the 46-minute-long recording is not newsy, just hadiths and quotation of Quranic verse – but references to Russian influence in Syria and the current spat between North Korea and the United States has still been triumphantly received by Isis sympathisers as proof that the leader is still alive. His last recording was in November 2016, two weeks after the start of the battle to recapture the city of Mosul from ISIS.

The voice said to belong to Baghdadi listed his group’s defeats, referring to “blood spilt in Mosul, Ramadi, Sirte, Raqa and Hama”.

He also asks the militants to keep fighting in Syria, Iraq and other places, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The recording was reportedly blasted out to Islamic State supporters in chat rooms on the messaging app Telegram.

The NY Times notes that the recording begins with “may Allah protect him”, which was meant to communicate that Baghdadi is still alive.

“The Americans and the Russians and the Europeans now live in terror in their countries”, al-Baghdadi says in the recording.

But his reference to tensions between North Korea and the U.S. would suggest it wad recorded recently.

But Washington said it could not corroborate the death, and Western and Iraqi officials were sceptical.

This image made from video posted on a militant website July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon in Iraq. “Our Iraqi partners have fought a long, bloody war and have sacrificed a great deal to liberate their people and clear terrorists from cities and villages”, he told reporters.

The US-led coalition authorised an air strike and seven civilians were killed or injured, including a child.

He stressed that the liberation forces in Iraq and Syria, with the support of the worldwide coalition continue to win victory after victory.

Baghdadi first proclaimed the creation of the self-styled caliphate from El Nuri mosque in Mosul in 2014.

In the speech, he declared the formation of the Islamic State, a self-proclaimed caliphate that would grow to become bigger than the size of Belgium.