The Islamic State appeared to try to keep morale high among its supporters in a new audio message released on Saturday, which also called for attacks on the US during the holy month of Ramadan.
The audio recording reportedly featuring Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was posted online late on Saturday evening after much fanfare by Islamic State supporters on Twitter.
“Will we be defeated if we lose Mosul, or Sirte, or al-Raqqah, or all the cities, and go back to how we were before?” al-Adnani said.
The three cities are the extremist group’s strongholds in Iraq, Libya and Syria respectively.
“No. Defeat is only losing the desire and the will to fight,” al-Adnani added in his first voiced speech since October last year.
The spokesman appeared to mock the US, which is leading a coalition of countries in an air war against the Muslim militant group in Iraq and Syria, for failing to definitively defeat the Islamic State.
He said even “20,000 airstrikes” by the coalition had not destroyed the Islamic State.
Al-Adnani also called for attacks on the US and Europe during the holy month of Ramadan, which this year starts early next month, an appeal he made at the same time last year when urging supporters to seek “martyrdom.”
On Friday, flyers apparently dropped by the coalition on al-Raqqah in northern Syria urged residents to leave the city, perhaps ahead of an offensive by anti-Islamic State forces to recapture it.
“It would appear [the Islamic State] is more clearly acknowledging its limitations in holding territory” while stressing the “idea of living on, despite losses,” Muslim extremist expert Aymenn al-Tamimi wrote in reaction to al-Adnani’s recording.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese