Countering numerous reports of the death of Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group last weekend released an audio broadcast purportedly containing his voice.
This time, for the first time, he threatened Israel directly.
“With the help of Allah, We are getting closer to you every day,” al-Baghdadi warned any Israelis listening to the twenty minute recording, that was released on jihadist social media accounts and could not be independently verified. “The Israelis will soon see us in Palestine. This is no longer a war of the crusaders against us. The entire world is fighting us right now.”
“The Israelis thought that we forgot Palestine and that they had distracted us from it,” he seemed to taunt, adding, “That is not the case. We have not forgotten Palestine for one moment.”
It was the first such message from al-Baghdadi since May. While referred to Russia’s entry into the Syrian war theater and to the recent claim by Saudi Arabia that it was forming a military coalition of Muslim countries to counter ISIS, al-Baghdadi did not make any specific reference to the ISIS-affiliated terror attacks in Paris or in California.
It is not known when al-Baghdadi was recorded.
“Be confident that God will grant victory to those who worship him, and hear the good news that our state is doing well,” he said and, apparently acknowledging the reverses his group has recently suffered, assured his followers that “the more intense the war against it, the purer it becomes and the tougher it gets.”