DUBAI (Reuters) – A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State has made what would be his first public appearance at a mosque in the centre of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the Internet yesterday.
There had previously been reports on social media that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would make his first public appearance since his Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) changed its name to the Islamic State and declared him caliph – a title held by successors of the Prophet Mohammad.
The Iraqi government denied that the 21-minute video, which carried Friday’s date, was credible.
“We have analysed the footage … and found it is a farce,” Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan told Reuters.
Maan said government forces had recently wounded Baghdadi in an air strike and that he had been transferred by Islamic State militants to Syria for medical treatment. But he declined to give further details and there was no way to confirm the claim independently.
If Baghdadi did preach in Mosul on Friday, it would be the first public appearance by the head of the militant group that led a military offensive last month that saw swathes of northern Iraq fall to ISIL and other Sunni armed factions. The campaign started on June 10 in Mosul, the north’s biggest city, which was quickly taken by ISIL.
The recording showed a bearded man in a black robe and black turban slowly ascending the pulpit below the black flag of the Islamic State, before delivering a sermon and leading prayers. The recording called him “Caliph Ibrahim, emir of the faithful in the Islamic State, may God protect him”.
