'New Audio Message' Of IS Leader Released

The so-called Islamic State (IS) has released a new audio message, allegedly of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first such recording to emerge in almost a year.

In the audio, the speaker urges followers to "persevere" and continue fighting the group's enemies everywhere.

The 54-minute audio, titled 'Give Glad Tidings to the Patient', was released by the extremist group's central media arm, the Al-Furqan Foundation.

The US-led military coalition fighting the war on IS said it could not yet verify it was al-Baghdadi's voice on the recording, or even whether he was still alive.

Colonel Sean Ryan, a military spokesman, said al-Baghdadi has been "irrelevant for a long time" but remains a priority target in the war on the group.

Al-Baghdadi's only public appearance was in 2014 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, shortly after the group declared the establishment of its so-called "caliphate".

The extremist group has since lost around 90% of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, however, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned IS has "not been vanquished".

Al-Baghdadi has been reported killed or wounded on a number of occasions, last year Russian officials said there was a "high probability" that al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian air strike on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

However, US officials later said they believed he was still alive, believing him to be hiding somewhere in the desert that stretches across the Syrian-Iraqi border region:

The latest message gave no clues as to where it was recorded.

An audio message said to have been recorded by al-Baghdadi was released on 28 September 2017, in which he called on his followers to burn their enemies everywhere and target "media centres of the infidels".

The speaker congratulates followers on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and makes references to current events, including Turkey's row with the United States over its detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson, dating the message to this month.

The speaker said: "America is going through the worst time in its entire existence," adding that Russia is competing with the US for regional influence.

The speaker also criticises rebels in southern Syria for surrendering to President Bashar Assad's forces, calling them traitors, and urges fighters to join IS instead.

He urges patience, perseverance and continued jihad, or holy war.