IS leader says 'caliphate' well, mocks Saudi-led alliance
BEIRUT
(AP) -- The Islamic State group on Saturday released a new message
purportedly from its reclusive leader, claiming that his self-styled
"caliphate" is doing well despite an unprecedented alliance against it
and criticizing the recently announced Saudi-led Islamic military
coalition against terrorism.
In the 24-minute
audio, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said airstrikes by the international
coalition only increase his group's determination and resolve. The
message was al-Baghdadi's first since May, and comes amid battlefield
setbacks that IS has recently faced.
Meanwhile,
a U.S.-backed coalition of rebels in Syria - including Syrian Kurdish,
Arab and Christian groups - captured a major dam on the Euphrates River
from the Islamic State group as part of the coalition's march on IS-held
areas in northern Syria.
The coalition, known
as Syria Democratic Forces, announced earlier this week a new offensive
aimed at cutting supply lines between IS strongholds in the country's
north. The SDF said it seized the Tishrin Dam, which supplies much off
northern Syria with electricity, on Saturday.
An
SDF spokesman told AP earlier this week that his forces are also trying
to cut the supply lines between the Islamic State's de-facto capital of
Raqqa and the group's stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria.
The
SDF, dominated by the main Kurdish militia in Syria known as YPG, or
People's Protection Units, has become a main force in fighting IS.
The
Islamic State group has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq, where it
has declared its self-styled Islamic caliphate on territory that the
militant group controls. It lost the town Sinjar in Iraq last month, and
areas across the border in Syria at the same time. Iraqi government
troops are also advancing in the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi, the
provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni
heartland.
Airstrikes by the U.S.-led
coalition and Russia in Syria have also destroyed Syrian oil facilities
and killed several IS leaders in recent weeks.
"It
is unprecedented in the history of our Ummah (Islamic nation) that all
the world came against it in one battle, as it is happening today. It is
the battle of all the disbelievers against all the Muslims,"
al-Baghdadi said.
He said the U.S.-led alliance does "not scare us... nor do they scatter our resolve because we are the victors in any event."
Al-Baghdad
also taunted the United States for not putting boots on the ground.
"They do not dare to come, because their hearts are full of fear from
the mujahideen,"or holy warriors, he said.
"America
and its allies dream of destroying the caliphate through their proxies
and henchmen, and whenever
an alliance of theirs fails or a tail is cut,
they hasten to establish another, until they recently declared the
Salouli (Saudi) alliance that was falsely called Islamic," al-Baghdadi
added.
If the Saudi-led alliance was truly
Islamic, then it would fight the Syrian army and its Russian "masters,"
as well as Shiites and Jews, al-Baghdadi said.
In
mid-December, Saudi Arabia announced the new, 34-member alliance
against terrorism, to be based in the kingdom's capital, Riyadh. But
Shiite powerhouse Iran is not part of the new coalition; neither are
Iraq and Syria, whose forces are battling to regain ground from the
Islamic State group and whose governments are allied with Tehran.
In
the audio, al-Baghdadi also warned nations taking part in the war
against IS by saying: "We promise you, God permitting, that whoever
participates in the war against the Islamic State will pay the price
dearly."
He threatened Israel by saying, "we
haven't forgotten you" and "we are getting closer to you" every day. To
Israeli Jews, he said that they "will hide behind trees and stones" from
the IS.
He also urged Muslims world over to join the IS fight, saying it is their Islamic duty to rise up everywhere.
The
authenticity of the audio could not be independently confirmed but it
was posted on IS-affiliated websites and Twitter as past IS messages.
Also, it was produced by the al-Furqan Media Foundation, IS media arm.
