Anointed as the Caliph of the Islamic State (earlier Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared for the first time in a video that showed him delivering a sermon from Iraq’s captured town of Mosul.
The video came amid the claims of al-Baghdadi being injured or killed in a raid by Iraqi Army.
However, the Iraqi government on Sunday refused to consider the video as authentic and said that it was a fake video.
The video that was posted online by the militants on Saturday, purports to show the leader of the jihadist group ISIS delivering a sermon on Friday in the al-Nouri mosque of Mosul, the second largest Iraqi town, which is under the militants’ control.
In the video, al-Baghdadi speaks in a commanding tone with dollops of humility as he orders all the Muslims to obey him. However at the same time, he chooses to show a modest streak by saying that e is not the best of the lot and urges the Muslims to “advise” him if he is wrong.
“I am your leader, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, support me, and if you see that I am wrong, advise me,” he was quoted as saying in the video.
Al-Baghdadi, a shadowy figure, who rarely appears in videos, and keeps a low profile, also said that being appointed as the Caliphate was a huge responsibility and he did not seek the burdensome position of the Caliph Ibrahim.
“Appointing a leader is an obligation on Muslims, and one that has been neglected for decades,” he said.
The video reportedly made on Friday, was followed by reports that the ISIS chief was injured heavly in a raid by Iraqi forces in the city of Qaim and that he might as well be dead due to the severity of injuries.
“After being hit, al-Baghdadi, with a range of elements of his organisation fled into Syrian territory because of its proximity to Qaim,” Iraqi news network Al Sumaria quoted an Iraqi official as saying.
Al- Baghdadi was appointed as the Caliph of the Islamic State – the Caliphate – that was established last Sunday by the militants who drastically took control of huge swathes of Iraq in lightning offensive.
The ISIS have renamed themselves as the Islamic State and in an earlier audio message, urged skilled muslims all over the world to join the ISIS and build the Islamic State.
In the message recorded earlier, al-Baghdadi had also threatened revenge in dozens of countries across the world, including India, saying that the ISIS will retaliate wherever the Muslims were being mistreated.
