Elusive IS leader vows revenge for lost territory, claims responsibility for SL attacks

The leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Babhdadi has come out making a public declaration that the IS group would seek revenge for its loss of territory as well as claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka that killed over 250 plus civilians including foreigners.

Baghdadi has made this statement through a video recording, which is also his first public appearance in five years. He was seen since 2014, when he proclaimed from Mosul the creation of a “caliphate” across parts of Syria and Iraq.

In this new footage, Baghdadi has acknowledged the defeat at Baghuz, the group’s last stronghold in the region. Baghdadi has said that the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka were carried out as revenge for the fall of the Syrian town of Baghuz.

Looking at Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday attacks that were primarily targeted at Catholic churches and five star city hotels, a recent analysis notes that IS targets churches because of the belief that the concept of the holy trinity goes against the concept of one God. 

As for the reason to target hotels, it is believed that the reason would be the decree issued by IS to target nationals of countries that belong to the coalition states, and hotels and popular restaurants are considered as places where nationals of coalition states would become victims. 

However, the BBC has stated that it is not clear when Baghdadi’s video was recorded. IS has reportedly said it was shot in April.

The footage was posted on the militant group's al-Furqan media network.

A US State Department spokesman has been quoted as saying by BBC that the tapes would be inspected by analysts to ascertain their authenticity, adding that the US-led coalition remains committed to ensuring any IS “leaders who remain are delivered the justice that they deserve.”

In the past two years, although ISIS has lost territory the size of Britain inside Syria and Iraq, it still has 08 official branches and more than 02 dozen networks regularly conducting terrorist and insurgent operations across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, according to the US National Strategy for Counter-terrorism.