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JIHADIST LEADER ABU Bakr al-Baghdadi called on his fighters to resist as Iraqi forces who were poised to enter the city of Mosul today where he declared a “caliphate” two years ago.
The appeal was made in an audio recording released online and purported to be by the elusive leader of the Islamic State group, his first message this year.
“Do not retreat,” he said. “Holding your ground with honour is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame.”
“To all the people of Nineveh, especially the fighters, beware of any weakness in facing your enemy,” Baghdadi said, referring to the northern Iraqi province of which Mosul is the capital.
In June 2014, days after jihadist fighters swept across swathes of Iraq, he made a rare public appearance in Mosul and announced the creation of an Islamic “state” straddling Iraq and Syria.
The “caliphate” has been shrinking steadily since last year and Iraqi forces earlier this week reached Mosul, the jihadists’ last major stronghold in Iraq.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces, backed by the US-led coalition and its warplanes, launched a massive offensive on Mosul on 17 October.
It was not immediately possible for AFP to authenticate the recording, entitled’This is what God and his messenger have promised us’, but leading experts of the jihadist organisation did not appear to doubt it.
Sunni ‘traitors’
Rumours have abounded about the Iraqi jihadist leader’s health and movements but his whereabouts are unclear.
IS has had a tendency to fall back when massively outnumbered lately, giving up some of its emblematic bastions — such as Fallujah in Iraq and Dabiq in Syria — without following its own apocalyptic ideology of fighting to the bitter end.
In his latest message, which is undated but makes references to events that are at most a few weeks old, Baghdadi calls for attacks against Saudi Arabia — a favourite target of his — and Turkey.
Ankara has troops stationed at a base just outside Mosul and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s escalating rhetoric has raised fears of a unilateral Turkish intervention in Iraq.
Baghdadi also said that his followers who could not travel to Syria or Iraq should aim for Libya and urged all IS fighters to remain united in adversity.
He attempted to stir up sectarian resentment by referring to religious flags and slogans of Shiite fighters among the Iraqi forces and by accusing the country’s Sunni politicians of treason.
The recapture of Mosul by Iraqi forces could spell the end of the group’s days as a land-holding force in Iraq and deal a death blow to the “caliphate”.
The US-led coalition estimates the number of IS fighters holed up in Mosul at 3,000 to 5,000 and has warned the battle of Mosul could be long and difficult.
Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul from three main fronts have retaken dozens of villages and towns scattered over hundreds of square miles in just over two weeks.
Earlier this week, federal forces reached the eastern edge of Mosul and on Wednesday were clearing the most recently reconquered areas to set up a breach of the city.
Gunfire echoed across the village of Gogjali on Mosul’s eastern edge Wednesday as elite Iraqi forces worked to clear the area.
Civilians
Civilians, who emerged cautiously from their homes, some carrying white flags, told tales of IS brutality.
“They confiscated my tractor and then threw me in jail for six days. They beat me and when I got out I couldn’t do my work anymore,” Yusef Fariq said.
The 40-year-old farmer, speaking from his home in Gogjali and surrounded by his mother and two sons, still had the long beard IS militants forced him to grow.
“They were killing us, always asking for money, we couldn’t go anywhere. We went through hell,” his mother said.
The electric hair clipper a member of the Iraqi special forces gave to residents of Gogjali was the village’s most popular item as men who had been forced to grow beards by IS were finally able to shave.
With an assault on the city looking imminent, aid groups said they were “bracing for the worst” and warned that the fate of a million-plus civilians still believed trapped inside Mosul was in the balance.
They have called for corridors allowing the safe escape of civilians to be opened.
IS fighters have been rounding up residents in villages and using them as cover to move across the battlefield, prompting fears they would systematically hide behind “human shields” to defend the city.
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Suicide bombers must be the dumbest of the dumb. They’re happy to go to the promised land which they’ve been told is so amazing, yet the people who are telling them how great it is, aren’t prepared to go there themselves.
Exactly. Why don’t they all just have a big suicide bomb party together and keep the rest of us the hell out of it
@Joe Murphy: Its the same with all their rituals, its always genital mutilation of children who cant defend themselves. We need to ban all circumcision completely in Ireland of children under 21 years old.
@Joe Murphy: ISIL Receives US Arms Cargo in Iraq’s Diyala – Paris Guardian
The US-led coalition helicopters have sent a large number of weapons and military equipment to the ISIL (Daesh/ISIS/IS) terrorists stationed in Iraq’s Diyala province.
Al-Waqt news website quoted a security source as saying that last week two military helicopters of the US-led coalition unloaded the weapons and equipment near Lake Hamrin in Tal Salimeh region of Diyala province after which a number of terrorists on board several boats arrived from across the Lake loaded the arms and ammunition to carry them to the ISIL operation zone.
According to the source, the militants on board the boats were affiliated to the ISIL terrorist group.
The US has a long record of blatant support for the terrorist groups in Iraq.
Read more
http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/2016/10/30/isil-receives-us-arms-cargo-in-iraqs-diyala/
@Pat O’Dwyer: The problems in Iraq begun as Saddam Hussein nationalized Iraq’s oil and then decided to trade it in Euro’s, as opposed to the US Petrodollar. This was the reason Germany and France did not partake in this war, much to Washington’s ire It would have been good for the Euro. UK joined the coalition because of the Pound and Holland because of promised contracts for Shell/BP. Gaddafi would make the same mistake a few years later, when he attempted to replace the petrodollar with an African gold backed Dinar.
“Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m
The man once regarded as the world’s most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was ‘largely’ about oil.
Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1987 and retired last year after serving four presidents, Alan Greenspan has been the leading Republican economist for a generation and his utterings instantly moved world markets.
In his long-awaited memoir – in the US – Greenspan, 81, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades, writes: ‘I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.’”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/16/iraq.iraqtimeline?CMP=share_btn_fb
The introduction of Chemical weapons by the US to Saddam Husain , and the real reason for Iraq’s total destruction.
Media will Never show you this!!
Short video:
Iraq The Petrodollar story.
https://www.facebook.com/ibi.funkdpunk/videos/1529257920690427/
Jaysus pat, just start a blog already!
No one would read his blog hence he comes here.
@Pat O’Dwyer: They didn’t steal the arms, just received them and signed for them. Hilarious, I’ll have what you’re smoking and stay on the medication.
So…..how many have been murdered in the name of atheism? I suppose the bible is no better really. The god in that one murdered up to 2.8m people.
@ joe: Islam: A relgion that teaches that if you blow yourself up in a crowd full of innocent people, you Will get 72 virgins to rape for eternity… they even oppress women in heaven ffs.
@Stephen murphy: German Journalist, Jürgen Todenhöfer from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , a renouned German newspaper, interviews top Al- Nusra commander.
“ Syria Americans are on our side Al Nusra commander says US arming jihadists via 3rd countries
US weapons are being delivered to Jabhat Al-Nusra (ISIS) by governments that Washington supports, a militant commander told the German media, adding that American instructors were in Syria to teach how to use the new equipment.
“Yes, the US supports the opposition [in Syria], but not directly. They support the countries that support us. But we are not yet satisfied with this support,” Jabhat al-Nusra unit commander Abu Al Ezz said in an interview with Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo.
According to the commander, the militants should be receiving more “sophisticated weapons” from their backers to succeed against the Syrian government. “
https://www.rt.com/news/360690-us-arms-nusra-syria/
Here is the original in German with English subtitles.
Nusra-Front: Jürgen Todenhöfer interviewt Rebellen-Kommandant der Terrororganisation Al Nusra in Syrien
Interview mit Al Nusra-Kommandeur „Die Amerikaner stehen auf unserer Seite“
http://www.ksta.de/politik/interview-mit-al-nusra-kommandeur–die-amerikaner-stehen-auf-unserer-seite–24802176
The bad news is that most virgins in paradise are probably octogenarian nuns!
Paul Furey: what drugs are you on? Your some numpty.
That”s the most ignorant post i ever read in my life.
True though. Google it!
@Paul Furey: And if we were living in the fictional world of the Old Testament, or if the Jews were currently attempting to recreate it with them acting the part of that God, that would be worth discussing. Meanwhile back in the real world, it is Islamist extremism that is causing far and away the most harm right now. So stop trying to change the subject.
No doubt the audio recording was taken in his hiding place nowhere near any fighting.
Hopefully this creep is vaporised soon.
Bearded Freak
Craft beer bars are full of them.
Hitler did the same when all is lost,the waffle of a madman.
Religions with supremacist teachings are dangerous.
Are there any religions that don’t claim to be the one true faith?
@tomnewman they’re all dangerous!
Agreed Derek. However, some religions are clearly more dangerous than others at the moment.
I am offering to act as executioner of convicted ISIS killers. I intend to use a chain saw to do it. Face up of course. green socialists were always the politics of envy. They envy our traditional way of life and will welcome any change which will destroy it, including unlimited immigration for Islamist countries. There are parts of Britain where there are no English children in school classed.
@Val Martin: Take your meds Val.
Val, that post was going all very well until the green bit.
@Val Martin: I bet you wouldn’t execute any of them Val. You big tough internet guy you.
He probably eats pork chops
This lad needs a podcast.
Sounds like the words of a cornered rat who knows his days are numbered. He’s a coward, and won’t fight himself. Let’s a bunch of deluded fools do his work for him.
Someone should find that audio, mix it up, put a backing track on it and release it.really drive them nuts.
When it is all over the bearded one (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) will simply say that he was never a member of IS.
@Paddy Lions: Hardly.
@Petr Tarasov: If he tries this tactic he will not be the first terrorist to do so.
my concern is that paradise will run out of virgins.
That sounds good. Wipe them all out. If not they will just come back like a cancer on society.
Dangerous people!
The Alt-Right are going to be devastated when ISIS are defeated. Their Armageddon fantasy of Daesh raising their flags in European capital cities will be crushed and they’ll have no bogeyman to rant and rave about.
@Tariq ibn Ziyad: lol Too true.
Will it be on Netflix….
Google Simon Elliot and find out who this guy really is.
He’s Mossad ffs, his identity is known – he grew the beard for operations
As he escapes leaving the eejits fighting as a distraction for him to get away?
Savages !
To hell forever
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