Appearing in good health, he vowed that the fight is not over despite the territorial defeat of the Islamic State, and he congratulated Sri Lanka’s suicide bombers.
By Liz Sly and Liz Sly Beirut bureau chief, covering Lebanon, Syria and the wider region Email Bio Follow Souad Mekhennet Souad Mekhennet Reporter covering national security, Middle East, North Africa, terrorism, Europe. Email Bio Follow April 29 at 1:17 PM BEIRUT — Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared Monday in a video for the first time in five years, indicating that he has survived the territorial defeat of the caliphate he proclaimed.
His beard has grayed since his only other video appearance — at the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, northern Iraq, in July 2014 — when he first announced the Islamic State’s intention to re-create the Islamic caliphate. But otherwise Baghdadi looked to be in good health and showed no obvious sign of injury, despite numerous reports in recent years that he had been wounded in an airstrike.
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