ISIS’ media arm has released audio purportedly featuring its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in which he says he’s “confident of victory” in Mosul, the group’s Iraqi stronghold.
Addressing the estimated 5,000 fighters holed up in the city, he said that “holding your ground in honor is a thousand times better than retreating in disgrace.”
The tape was released by ISIS’ media wing al-Furqan as the battle for Mosul intensifies, with Iraqi troops poised to enter the city.
It’s the first recording reportedly of al-Baghdadi released since late 2015.
The sectarian tone and animosity toward Shia Muslims and other, non-Muslim groups is more vicious than in previous recordings.
The voice, which CNN cannot independently verify, says that “God’s enemies from the Jews, Christians, atheists, Shiites, apostates and all of the world’s infidels have dedicated their media, money, army and munitions to fight Muslims and jihadists in the State of Nineveh after they witnessed it become one of the bases of Islam and one of its minarets under the Caliphate,” he said.
Nineveh is an ancient name for the modern day Mosul region.
The audio, which is nearly 32 minutes long, references Turkey’s massing of armaments along the Iraq-Turkey border, suggesting that the recording was made very recently.
Along with rallying ISIS-affiliated fighters across the globe, he warns jihadists against “conflict and disagreement.”
“You need to be one and united in your fight against your enemy. You should seek to raise the word of God on Earth,” he said.
Previous appearances
The leader of the brutal Islamist group first came into the public eye with a sermon delivered at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul in July 2014.
The most recent audio message attributed to al-Baghdadi surfaced online in December 2015, mocking the Western coalition aligned against him, threatening Israel and trying to boost his own forces’ morale.
“Soldiers of the Islamic State be patient because you are on the right path,” he said on that recoding. “Be patient, because God is with you.”
Where did ISIS — and al-Baghdadi — come from?
The group’s roots are in the Sunni terror group al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), started in 2004 by Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It was a major player in the insurgency against the US-led forces that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, and against the Shiite-dominated government that eventually replaced Hussein.
After Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike in 2006, Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri took over and announced the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq. The words “and Syria” would come later.
By 2006, ISIS controlled much of western Iraq’s Anbar province. But then in 2008, a surge of US troops, with the help of Sunni tribesmen who were at odds with al Qaeda, largely defeated the group in Iraq.
Masri was killed in a 2010 US-Iraqi operation. That opened the door to al-Baghdadi, who is also known to the United States as Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Al Badry.
Before taking control of ISIS, al-Baghdadi was taken into US custody in Fallujah in the Anbar province on February 4, 2004, according to a Pentagon statement.
There have been mixed reports about when and why he was detained. He was held until the following December at a a prison at Camp Bucca, according to the Pentagon. A review board recommended his “unconditional release,” the statement said.
While the Pentagon said al-Baghdadi was from Fallujah, other reports have said he is from Samarra, north of Baghdad.