Iraq: IS Remains Threat, Baghdadi Filmed Video in ‘Remote Area’

The Islamic State terror group remains a potent threat around the world despite reduced capabilities, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Tuesday, adding its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had made his latest video appearance in a “remote area.”

Abdul Mahdi did not say which country that area was in.

A video released late on Monday by Islamic State’s media network showed a man it said was Baghdadi in what would be his first appearance since he declared the terrorists’ now-defunct “caliphate” five years ago.

The authenticity and date of the recording could not be independently verified.

Abdul Mahdi said that Baghdadi’s appearance was an attempt to boost militants and that Islamic State would attempt to carry out more attacks.

“Regarding the location of Baghdadi, we can’t give intelligence information right now but it’s clear from the video that he’s in a remote area,” Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference on a visit to Berlin.

“Daesh (Islamic State) is not just a small organization, it’s widespread and will try to put confidence back in its militants and carry out acts such as those in Sri Lanka,” he said, referring to the Easter attacks there this month claimed by the group.

“But its capabilities have [been] greatly reduced,” he said.

In the 18-minute video from the Al Furqan network, a bearded man with Baghdadi’s appearance says the bombings in Sri Lanka were Islamic State’s response to losses in its last territorial stronghold of Baghouz in Syria.

A U.S.-backed campaign ended Islamic State’s control of territory in Iraq in late 2017 and in Syria last month, nearly five years after the group took over vast areas in both countries.