Summary Baghdadi has revived the fortunes of Iraq's struggling Al-Qaeda affiliate, turning it into IS group
BAGHDAD: (AFP) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed "caliph" terrorizing Iraq and Syria, is a preacher who rose from obscurity to lead the world s most feared jihadist organization. His Islamic State group on Thursday released an audio recording purporting to be of Baghdadi, days after rumors that air strikes may have killed or wounded him.
Like much about Baghdadi, little is known about the strikes or their results, or even where they took place -- the US announced it had targeted IS leaders in north Iraq, but reports also emerged of a strike in the west. With both areas outside government hands, verifying what transpired in either will be difficult if not impossible.
In the recording, the man said to be Baghdadi was defiant, vowing that IS s "March will not stop and it will continue to expand," and that his enemies would be drawn into a ground war. Baghdadi has revived the fortunes of Iraq s struggling Al-Qaeda affiliate, turning it into the independent IS group, arguably the most brutal, powerful and wealthiest jihadist organization in the world.
Under his leadership, IS spearheaded a militant offensive that overran much of Iraq s Sunni Arab heartland since June after seizing major territory in neighboring Syria, and carried out a series of atrocities in both countries. It launched a renewed drive in Iraq s north in August, pushing Kurdish troops back towards their regional capital Arbil and sparking a US-led campaign of air strikes and the deployment of up to 3,100 American soldiers in the country to advise and train its forces.
The group has killed hundreds of Iraqi and Syrian tribesmen who opposed it, attacked members of the Yazidi religious minority, sold women as slaves, executed scores of Iraqi security personnel and beheaded western journalists and aid workers on camera.
Baghdadi was declared a "caliph" on June 29 in an attempt to revive a system of rule that ended nearly 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and ordered Muslims to obey him in a video from the northern city of Mosul.
The man now touted as the world s most prominent jihadist had rarely been seen in public before and his appearance in the video appeared to mark his growing confidence, but he has remained out of sight since the air strikes began.
