Hyderabad: The leader of the Islamic State group appeared for the first time in five years in a video released by the extremist group's propaganda arm, acknowledging defeat in the group's last stronghold in Syria but promising a "long battle" ahead.
The SITE Intelligence group said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appearing in the video, also discussed the Easter Day bombings in Sri Lanka which killed over 250 people and for which the group claimed responsibility.
The video released by Al-Furqan on Monday shows al-Baghdadi with a bushy grey and red beard, wearing a black robe with a beige vest and seated on the floor with what appears to be a machine gun propped up next to him.
It is his first video appearance since he delivered a sermon at the al-Nuri mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.
In that video, his only other appearance in the past five years, he appeared as a black-robed figure with a trimmed black beard to deliver a sermon from the pulpit of the mosque in which he urged Muslims around the world to swear allegiance to the caliphate and obey him as its leader.
Al-Bagdadi in this latest video acknowledged that IS lost the war in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, captured last month by the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
"The battle of Islam and its people against the Crusaders and their followers is a long battle," he said.
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He said the battle of Baghouz demonstrated the "barbarism and brutality" of the West and the "courage, steadfastness and resilience of the nation of Islam."
"This steadfastness shocked the hearts of the Crusaders (and) increased their rage," he said.
