(Independent)
Richard Hall April 29, 2019
The leader of Isis, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appeared on video for the first time in nearly five years.
The terror group's media arm released a speech by the elusive leader on Monday, in which he addresses the end of the physical Isis caliphate. It is the first time he has been pictured since July 2014, when he announced the creation of the Isis caliphate from the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul.
Following the capture of the last of the group's territory month, Western intelligence agencies have speculated that Baghdadi has gone into hiding somewhere in the desert regions of Iraq or Syria. Despite releasing several audio recordings over the past few years, his fate has been the subject of intense speculation.
The elusive leader, who took control of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, took the group from an underground insurgency to a proto-state which ruled over some 10 million people.
In the video, Baghdadi sits alongside three other Isis members whose faces are blurred. He praises the recent terror attacks in Sri Lanka, which targeted churches and hotels and left more than 250 people dead, calling it revenge for Baghouz — the small Syrian village where Isis made its last stand.
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