Self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made an appearance in Mosul, Iraq, which his forces helped capture last month, and ordered Muslims to obey him, according to a video posted online.
That marks a significant change for the shadowy jihadist, whose newly renamed Islamic State (IS) group led a lightning offensive that overran sections of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.
The onslaught has alarmed world leaders, displaced hundreds of thousands and piled pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he seeks a third term in office following April elections.
Photo: Reuters
The video posted on Saturday showed a portly man clad in a long black robe and turban with a long graying beard addressing worshipers at weekly prayers at the al-Nur mosque in central Mosul.
“I am the wali [leader] who presides over you, though I am not the best of you. So if you see that I am right, assist me,” said the man, purportedly al-Baghdadi. “If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God.”
Text superimposed on the video identified the man as “Caliph Ibrahim,” the name al-Baghdadi took when the group on Sunday last week declared a “caliphate,” a pan-Islamic state last seen in Ottoman times, in which the leader is both political and religious leader.
The video is the first ever official appearance by al-Baghdadi, said Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on Islamist movements, though the jihadist leader may have appeared in a 2008 video under a different name.
Al-Baghdadi is believed to have been born in Samarra, Iraq, in 1971, and joined the insurgency against the US military following the 2003 invasion that ousted former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
He spent time in a US military prison and eventually took over leadership of a group, then affiliated with al-Qaeda and known as the Islamic State of Iraq, in 2010.
At the time, the group was believed to be on the ropes, but al-Baghdadi led it back to prominence.
Last year, the organization expanded into Syria, becoming a major player in the war to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Baghdadi subsequently cut all ties to al-Qaeda, and his influence now rivals that of that group’s global leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Meanwhile, influential Sunni Muslim scholar Yusef al-Qaradawi said that the establishment of a caliphate by “a group known for its atrocities and radical views does not serve the Islamic project.”
The title of caliph can only be “given by the entire Muslim nation,” the cleric said.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, renamed itself simply the Islamic State last week.
Iraq has reached out for international assistance and Washington has sent military advisers, but Baghdad’s request for US air strikes against the militants has been rebuffed.
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
RSS