Islamic State leader urges martyrdom in Mosul fight

IRBIL, Iraq — The Islamic State’s shadowy leader has released a new message urging followers to defend Mosul against the ongoing offensive.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s sermon-like recording, more than half an hour long, was distributed by ISIS’s alFurqan media arm yesterday. Al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts are unknown.

Iraqi special forces stormed Mosul’s eastern outskirts Tuesday after two weeks of advances through surrounding territory. They continued to consolidate their foothold despite a pair of attempted car bomb attacks on their positions Thursday.

The city of more than one million people fell to ISIS fighters in a surprise attack in June 2014. Al-Baghdadi visited the city soon after, and from inside Mosul declared an Islamic caliphate that at one point covered nearly a third of Iraq and Syria.

In his recording, al-Baghdadi rallies his fighters — especially in Mosul — and calls on them to obey orders while remaining resilient and steadfast.

“Oh you who seek martyrdom! Start your actions! Turn the night of the disbelievers into day,” he says, according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. organization that monitors militant activity online, which reported the al-Baghdadi recording first.

“Totally decimate their territories, and make their blood flow like rivers,” alBaghdadi also says.

ap photo BATTLE RAGES ON: An Iraqi special forces soldier fires his weapon at Islamic State positions in Gogjali, on the eastern edge of Mosul, Iraq, yesterday.