IS leader says ‘caliphate’ well, mocks Saudi-led alliance

On the ropes… the US-backed coalition has made some strategic gains in Syria but Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claims his group is doing well.

A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at a mosque calling out to all Muslims to rise up and defend his Caliphate.

“The Jews thought we forgot Palestine, and that they had distracted us from it”, he continues in the recording.

In his 24-minute audio message, al-Baghdadi warned of hard times ahead, saying that “the whole world” is united against the Islamic State.

CNN could not independently verify the man speaking is indeed Baghdadi, the much-reviled head of the group that calls itself the Islamic State.

Eizenkot’s remarks followed the release of a recording on Saturday in which al-Baghdadi, the so-called “Caliph” of the Islamic State, threatened Israelis that his forces would “soon meet [the Jews] in Palestine”.

He added further the US-led alliance does not scare them and does not scatter them as they are the victors.

“Do not be amazed by the meeting of the nations of disbelief and groups against the Islamic State”, says al Baghdadi.

If this alliance was truly Islamic, then it would fight the Syrian army and its Russian “masters”, as well as Shiites and Jews, he said.

Iraqi troops also have advanced to Ramadi Dam, about 1.2 kilometers (three-quarters of a mile) from ISIS’ compound, giving Iraqi security forces control of the important road that stretches between Ramadi Dam and the Albu Faraj area in the city’s north.

“If this was Islamic coalition, it would have brought victory and help to the people in Syria”, he said.

Apart from mocking Saudi Arabia for forming the 34-nation alliance, he has urged the group’s operatives for an uprising in the region.

Elsewhere in Syria yesterday, a UN-sponsored deal to evacuate more than 2,000 Isil fighters and other militants from rebel-held parts of south Damascus has been delayed, a body that monitors the war said yesterday, a day after a rebel leader was killed. A government offi cial has said the plan would see the evacuees transferred Saturday out of Qadam, Hajar al-Aswad and the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmuk and into northern Syria. The ISIS leader talks of a “general war” in which the “caliphate” is up against the West, Russia and their Arab allies – specifically Saudi Arabia.