Iraq News Now

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Video footage allegedly showing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State (ISIS) group, emerged on jihadist social media platforms on Monday afternoon. 

In the footage, Baghdadi says the recent terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed around 300 people, were an act of revenge for the group's defeat in Syria's Baghouz. 

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized the last sliver of ISIS territory in Syria's Baghouz, Deir ez-Zor province, on March 23.

The one-time “caliph” has not been in public since he announced the foundation of the ISIS statelet at the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul in 2014.

Several unconfirmed reports in recent years claimed he was killed in an airstrike. Others said he was hiding out in Iraq’s desert province of Anbar.

In the 18-minute video published by ISIS media on Telegram, Baghdadi is seen seated next to an AK-47 assault rifle – a pose reminiscent of images of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

This is a developing story…