Baghdad:The Islamic State group in an audio message blasted Iraq's new Prime Minister, calling him an American agent, and criticized the closure of Islam's holiest shrine in the Saudi holy city of Mecca to limit the spread of coronavirus.
In the message allegedly read by the group's chief spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, released late Thursday, al-Qurayshi asked why mosques are being closed and people being prevented from praying at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, hinting that Muslims are immune to the coronavirus.
The virus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia in late March banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the minor pilgrimage to Mecca. In other countries in the Middle East, Friday prayers were also suspended to limit the spread of the virus.
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Iraq's new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief backed by Washington, took office earlier this month after he played a part for years in the war against IS. The group was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017.
Al-Kadhimi remains the intelligence's pointed sword on the heads of Muslims, al-Qurayshi said, urging IS fighters to launch daily attacks in Syria, Iraq, and other countries.
In recent weeks, the extremists have taken advantage of the pandemic to launch deadly attacks in their former self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.