5 Jul 2014

Is this Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?

Iraq’s interior ministry says a video, purporting to show Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in his first public appearance, is a “farce”.

The video emerged on Saturday and is said to include the reclusive militant leader speaking from the grand mosque in Mosul – the city captured by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (now renamed Islamic State) a month ago.

In the video, “al-Baghdadi” says: “God has granted your brothers, the Mujahideen, victory and a conquest after years of patience and holy struggle, and enabled them to achieve their objective.”

He continues: “And they have rushed to declare an Islamic caliphate and to appoint an imam, which is a duty for Muslims, a duty that had been lost for centuries that had been absent from reality, making many Muslims ignorant of it.

“I have been afflicted by this great affair, I have been afflicted by this trust, a heavy trust.

“I was appointed in charge of you, though I am not the best or better than you, so if you see me in the right, then help me, and if you see me in the wrong, advise me and put me right.”

‘Farce’

However, Iraq’s interior ministry has said the man in the video is “indisputably” not al-Baghdadi.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said: “We have analysed the footage … and found it is a farce.”

He added that government forces had recently injured al-Baghdadi in an airstrike, and that the “caliph” had been transferred by the Islamic State to Syria for medical treatment.

He declined to give further details and the claim has not been confirmed independently.

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