IS Leader Says ‘Caliphate’ Well, Mocks Saudi-led Alliance by Zeina Karam, Washington Post
The Islamic State group on Saturday released a new message purportedly from its reclusive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, claiming that his self-styled “caliphate” is doing well despite an unprecedented alliance that has formed against it, including a Saudi-led Islamic military coalition, which he mocked.
In the 24-minute audio, Baghdadi said airstrikes by the international coalition only increase his group’s determination and resolve. The message was Baghdadi’s first since May, and it comes amid battlefield setbacks that the Islamic State has recently faced.
The Islamic State group has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq, where it has declared its self-styled Islamic caliphate on territory that the militant group controls. It lost the town Sinjar in Iraq last month, and areas across the border in Syria at the same time. Iraqi government troops are also advancing in the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province, Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
And airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and Russia in Syria have destroyed Syrian oil facilities — oil is a key moneymaker for the Islamic State — and killed several ISIS leaders in recent weeks…