Isil leader emerges to urge further attacks

ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI, an key Isil leader, has emerged for the first time in nearly a year to issue a call on the terror group’s followers to continue to wage Jihad.

In his first purported speech for almost 12 months, he told supporters to persevere, according to a statement posted on the group’s media outlet.

“For the Mujahideen (holy warriors) the scale of victory or defeat is not dependant on a city or town being stolen or subject to that who has aerial superiority, intercontinental missiles or smart bombs,” Baghdadi said in a recording posted on his al-furqan media group. “Oh Caliphate soldiers .... trust in God’s promise and His victory... for with hardship comes relief and a way out.”

Reuters was unable to verify whether the voice on the recording was Baghdadi’s. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) which until last year controlled large areas in Syria and Iraq, has since been driven into the desert following successive defeats in separate offensives in both countries.

Baghdadi, who declared himself ruler of all Muslims in 2014 after capturing Mosul, Iraq’s main northern city, is now believed to be hiding in the Iraqi-syrian border region after losing all the cities and towns of his self-proclaimed caliphate.

The secretive leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since leading his fighters on a sweep through northern Iraq.

One of his sons was reported to have been killed in the city of Homs in Syria, the group’s news channel reported earlier this year. Baghdadi’s last message, before yesterday’s, came in the form of an undated 46-minute audio recording, released via the al-furqan organisation in September, in which he urged followers across the world to attack the West and to keep fighting in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. n Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for five human rights activists from the kingdom’s Eastern Province currently on trial in a secretive terrorism court, groups including Human Rights Watch have said. Among the detainees is Israa al-ghomgham, whom Saudi activists said would be the first woman to face the death penalty for rights-related work. Charges against her include incitement to protest and providing moral support to rioters.