ISIS releases recording said to be of its leader

The Islamic State issued Thursday what appears to be the first recording in nearly a year of its reclusive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a move that seems intended to silence rumors of his death and to galvanize his pummeled troops.

The 46-minute audio recording would be the first time since November that supporters of the jihadi group have heard the voice of their self-proclaimed caliph. Since then, the group has lost significant territory, including Mosul, Iraq, which had been the largest city under its control, and much of the group’s capital, Raqqa, Syria.

In the recording, al-Baghdadi praised his foot soldiers for waging a tenacious battle in Mosul.

Al-Baghdadi, 46, emphasized the threat the West still faces from the Islamic State, making indirect references to recent attacks on the Underground in London, in the heart of Barcelona and in Russia.

“Now the Americans, the Russians and the Europeans are living in terror in their countries, fearing the strikes of the mujahedeen,” he said.

The recording, which was widely disseminated to Islamic State supporters in their chat rooms on the messaging app Telegram, begins with the voice of a narrator who introduces alBaghdadi and adds, “May Allah protect him.”

That phrase is used to refer to people who are still living and is intended to signal that alBaghdadi is not dead, contrary to reports over the summer. The recording also cites current events.

In June, the Russian military said it might have killed al-Baghdadi in a strike on Islamic State leaders in May near Raqqa. In July, a British-based monitoring organization, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said senior Islamic State commanders had confirmed that al-Baghdadi had been killed in Deir el-Zour province.

Sounding a defiant tone, al-Baghdadi ridiculed the coalition forces who are battling the group with U.S. help, saying they “wouldn’t stand one hour of fighting without Crusader air support.”

Al-Baghdadi ended his speech by vowing to continue fighting, including calling for attacks on “disbeliever media centers.”

Although the recording’s authenticity could not be immediately confirmed, the voice on the tape sounds the same as that of other recordings of alBaghdadi. The Islamic State has not misrepresented a recording of its leader in the past, and the Pentagon said it had “no reason to believe tape is not authentic.”