A video purported to show Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a July 4 sermon in Mosul, and ordering Muslims to “obey” his calls for “jihad,” is being described as “indisputably” fake by an Iraqi government spokesman.
As Breitbart News reported on June 29, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) declared a new state–a caliphate–out of captured Iraqi and Syrian territories. Baghdadi was named chief of the state.
The Associated Press in Baghdad reports that Baghdadi has gone by the name “Caliph Ibrahim” since the declaration and the July 4 sermon shows what is supposed to be him saying: “I am the…(leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you, so if you see I am right, assist me.”
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan says “the footage is ‘indisputably’ not [Bagdhadi].” He said Iraqi “government forces had wounded Baghdadi in an air strike” and that militants had since transferred him “to Syria for medical treatment.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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