ISIS leader appears in video

Islamic State (ISIS) released a video Monday purporting to show the group’s fugitive leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, for the first time in five years. In the 18-minute video from the al-Furqan network, a man suspected to be al-Baghdadi sits cross-legged on the floor with a Kalashnikov rifle at his right side. He confirmed defeat in the group’s last stronghold in Baghuz, Syria, saying the clearance operation showed “the savagery, brutality, and ill intentions of the Christians toward the Muslim community.” He vowed the insurgents would avenge the attacks and called for more violence against France and its allies.

Al-Baghdadi lauded the Easter suicide bombings in Sri Lanka that killed 250 people as revenge for the defeat of Baghuz. It’s unclear when or where the group filmed the video. Despite numerous claims about his death in the past few years, al-Baghdadi is among the few senior ISIS commanders still at large. The terrorist leader delivered his last video message in 2014 from the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul, Iraq.