Foreign Policy

ISIS leader appears in video for the first time in 5 years

By Zach Halaschak
Published April 29, 2019 9:25pm ET
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ISIS leader appears in video for the first time in 5 years
This image made from video posted on a militant website on Monday, April 29, 2019, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, being interviewed by his group's Al-Furqan media outlet. Al-Baghdadi acknowledged in his first video since June 2014 that IS lost the war in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz that was captured last month by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. | (Al-Furqan media via AP)

For the first time in five years, the Islamic State has released a video which the group claims is of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The last and only other time the elusive ISIS leader appeared in a video was his 2014 announcement of the formation of the Islamic State caliphate. He gave the 2014 speech at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was then under ISIS control.

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Tag:

Iraq ISIS Islamic Jihad Middle East Sri Lanka Syria Terrorism