Daesh (so-called IS) remains a potent threat around the world despite reduced capabilities, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Tuesday, adding its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi had made his latest video appearance in a "remote area". Abdul Mahdi did not say which country that area was in. A video released late on Monday by Daesh's media network showed a man it said was Baghdadi in what would be his first appearance since he declared the jihadists' now-defunct "caliphate" five years ago. The authenticity and date of the recording could not be independently verified. Abdul Mahdi said Baghdadi's appearance was an attempt to boost militants and that Daesh would attempt to carry out more attacks. "Regarding the location of Baghdadi, we can't give intelligence information right now but it's clear from the video that he's in a remote area," Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference on a visit to Berlin. "Daesh is not just a small organization, it's widespread and will try to put confidence back in its militants and carry out acts such as those in Sri Lanka," he said, referring to the Easter attacks there this month claimed by the group. "But its capabilities have greatly reduced," he said. In the 18-minute video from the Al Furqan network, a bearded man with Baghdadi's appearance says the bombings in Sri Lanka were Daesh's response to losses in its last territorial stronghold of Baghouz in Syria. A US-backed campaign ended Daesh's control of territory in Iraq in late 2017 and in Syria last month, nearly five years after the group took over vast areas in both countries. In the video, the man said to be Baghdadi referred to the months-long fight for Daesh's final redoubt Baghouz, which ended in March. "The battle for Baghouz is over," he said, sitting cross-legged on a cushion and addressing three men whose faces have been blurred. He referred to a string of Daesh defeats, including its onetime Iraqi capital Mosul and Sirte in Libya, but insisted the jihadists had not "surrendered" territory. "God ordered us to wage 'jihad.' He did not order us to win," he said. In a segment in which the man is not on camera, his voice described the April 21 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed 253 people and wounded nearly 500, as "vengeance for their brothers in Baghouz." The man insisted Daesh's operations against the West were part of a "long battle," and that Daesh would continue to "take revenge" for members who had been killed. "There will be more to come after this battle," he said. The US-led coalition will "ensure an enduring defeat of these terrorists and that any leaders who remain are delivered the justice that they deserve," a State Department spokesman said. Even if Baghdadi is alive and well, the spokesman said that the militants had been battered. — Agencies
