IS leader resurfaces

Terror leader seen in propaganda video praising bombings

ISIS terror chief Abu Bakr alBaghdadi is seen for the first time in almost five years in a new video released to prove he’s still alive.

The world’s most wanted terrorist can apparently be heard name-checking the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka and the end of the battle in Baghouz in a speech to his closest followers at his secret hide-out.

The extremist group’s propaganda arm, Al-Furqan, yesterday released a video it called “In the Hospitality of the Emir of the Believers.”

It seems be designed to show al-Baghdadi is alive and still in command of the on-therun terror group as it plots new atrocities around the world.

The 18-minute video of alBaghdadi included images of the extremist leader sitting in a white room with three others, assault rifles by their sides. He discussed Sri Lanka in an audio portion of the video, suggesting the April 21 attacks came after they filmed him. Al-Baghdadi (pictured) praised the attackers, saying they conducted the bombings as revenge for the fall of Baghouz, Syria, the last territory the extremist group held there or in Iraq.

“As for your brothers in Sri Lanka, they have put joy in the hearts of the monotheists with their immersing operations that struck the homes of the crusaders in their Easter,” alBaghdadi said, according to a transcript from the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Authorities initially blamed the Easter attacks, targeting three hotels and three churches, on a local militant named Mohammed Zahran and his followers. Then the Islamic State group on April 23 released images of Zahran and others pledging their loyalty to al-Baghdadi.

Mystery had surrounded alBaghdadi’s whereabouts for some time. He was said to have been seriously wounded in an air strike in 2015.

But in the video he seems to have recovered.