London: Dressed in black from head to toe, and wearing a flowing robe, this is the first image seen in years of the world’s most wanted man, whose terrorist group has butchered thousands and stolen more than a billion pounds in gold and cash.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the elusive leader of the Al Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (Isis), walked out of the shadows and delivered a sermon at the Great Mosque in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.
He addressed the packed congregation – which included Isis fighters and local sympathisers – on the first Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in the heart of a city his fighters took control of barely a month ago.
His sermon came only days after he declared himself caliph, or ruler, of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims. He also declared large swathes of northern Syria and Iraq seized by his fighters as his new caliphate.
A video of Baghdadi’s sermon was released on the internet yesterday and went viral instantly on jihadist forums and websites.
Speaking from the pulpit of the mosque, Baghdadi, 42, urged the world’s Muslims to flock to the new Islamic caliphate. He praised the victory of his 14,000 fighters spread across Iraq and Syria.
The speech was an audacious move for a man who has a £6 million bounty on his head and who would be a target of attacks by drones or US forces.
Until yesterday, there were only two known images of Baghdadi. They were at least four years old and taken by US soldiers when he was in detention in Iraq.
When he became leader of Isis in 2010, he forbade any images or videos of him being issued, and experts have said that he even met some of his closest aides with his face covered, fearing spies.
Until he delivered his Friday sermon, intelligence experts were not even sure which country he was in, some claiming he was in Syria, while others said he may have been in Iraq.
Raffaello Pantucci, a security expert at the think-tank RUSI, said: ‘The video is emblematic of the confidence that Baghdadi and Isis feel about themselves.
‘They have consolidated a large part of Syria and Iraq into what they call a caliphate, and he is asserting his leadership.’
Last month Isis began an onslaught in northern Iraq, taking over Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace.
They executed hundreds of soldiers, and raided the city’s bank of cash and gold bullion.
They boast 11,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria and 3,000 foreign jihadis, including 500 Britons.
Last night, the Iraqi government issued a statement casting doubt that the video Isis issued was of Baghdadi.
Iraq’s interior ministry spokesman, Saad Maan, said: ‘We have analysed the footage, and found it a farce.’
The Iraqi government claims Baghdadi was injured in an air strike earlier in the week.
