Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Friday 29 September 2017
IS reclusive leader rallies followers in purported new audio

purported message was re- of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour backed Iraqi forces that
leased in November, also in are under siege and likely wrested control of Mosul,
an audio recording. too dangerous for him to Iraq’s second largest city,
“You soldiers of the caliph- hide in. Some IS leadership from IS after nearly nine
ate, heroes of Islam and is believed to have gone to months of fighting.
carriers of banners: light a the nearby town of Maya- “In Mosul, they defiantly
fire against your enemies,” deen, and the group still stood firm on a land ruled
said al-Baghdadi, a shad- holds a stretch of the Eu- by God’s laws against the
owy cleric who has been phrates River from Deir el- infidels and nations of the
surrounded by controversy Zour to the Iraqi border, as cross ... only leaving it over
since the Sunni terror group well as remote desert areas their skulls and dead bod-
emerged from al-Qaida in along the border. ies after nearly a year of
Iraq, its forerunner. “You soldiers of Islam, sup- fighting,” he said. “The sons
Russian officials said in June porters of the caliphate of Islam will willingly contin-
there was a “high probabil- everywhere, step up your ue to sacrifice their blood
ity” that al-Baghdadi had attacks and include the and bodies for the sake of
died in a Russian airstrike media centers of the infi- their creator,” he defiantly
This file image made from video posted on a militant website on the outskirts of the Syrian dels and the headquarters declared.
July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State city of Raqqa, the group’s of their ideological war In the recording, he also
group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque
in Iraq during his first public appearance. The Islamic State de facto capital. U.S. of- among your targets,” he consoled IS fighters over
group released on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 a purported audio ficials later said they be- said in the recording, ap- the number of major mili-
recording from top leader al-Baghdadi. lieved he was still alive. parently alluding to West- tary setbacks suffered in
(Militant video via AP) Al-Baghdadi’s where- ern news outlets and re- recent months in both Iraq
By HAMZA HENDAWI ished praise on his jihadis for abouts are unknown but search centers. and Syria, but also made
Associated Press their valor in the battlefield he is believed to be in IS’ He also lauded his fight- a passionate plea for
CAIRO (AP) — The leader — despite the militants’ loss dwindling territory in east- ers for what he called their them to rise up and never
of the Islamic State group of the northern Iraqi city of ern Syria. The IS-held cities valiant fight against U.S.- surrender.q
urged followers to burn Mosul in July.
their enemies everywhere The recording was re-
and target “media centers leased by the IS-run al-
of the infidels,” according Furqan outlet, which has
to an audio recording re- in the past released mes-
leased Thursday that the sages from al-Baghdadi
extremists said was by Abu and other top figures of the
Bakr al-Baghdadi. extremist group. The voice
The reclusive leader of IS, in the over 46-minute-long
who has only appeared in audio sounded much like
public once, also vowed to previous recordings of al-
continue fighting and lav- Baghdadi. His last previous

Iraqi Kurds faces isolation

after independence vote

By SUSANNAH GEORGE now only deal with Iraq’s
Associated Press central government on oil
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The sales. That could deprive
backlash from an inde- the Kurdish region of more
pendence referendum ap- than 80 percent of its in-
proved by Iraq’s Kurds this come. Iraq’s government
week has left the northern also has ordered interna-
Kurdish region increasingly tional airlines to halt flights
isolated from Baghdad, to and from the cities of Irbil
and the crisis sparked by and Sulaimaniyah starting
the vote appears poised Friday. Turkish President Re-
to intensify. The nonbinding cep Tayyip Erdogan urged
referendum, in which the Masoud Barzani, the leader
Kurds voted overwhelm- of Iraq’s Kurdish administra-
ingly in favor of indepen- tion, to be content with
dence from Iraq, was billed the region’s current semi-
by the Kurdish leaders who autonomous status, enjoy
spearheaded it as an ex- its oil revenue and not drag
ercise in self-determination it into an “adventure that is
that would set the region bound to end in chagrin.”
on the path to statehood “Sit still! You are at the helm
— a dream central to Kurd- in northern Iraq, you have
ish politics for decades. money, wealth and every-
Baghdad announced thing, you have oil,” Erdo-
Thursday that Turkey — an gan said Thursday, speak-
indispensable trade part- ing at a police academy
ner to the region and once graduation ceremony in
a key political ally — will Ankara.q