Daesh leader Baghdadi appears for 1st time in 5 years

WASHINGTON - 30 April 2019: Daesh leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has appeared in a video for the first time in five years, indicating that he has survived the territorial defeat of the caliphate he proclaimed, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

He spoke about the group’s losses in the recent battle of Baghouz in Syria, vowed that the fight is not over and congratulated the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday suicide bombing attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.

This is the second time he appeared since his only other video appearance at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul in northern Iraq in July 2014, when he first announced the Islamic State’s intention to re-create the Islamic caliphate.