ISIS leader Baghdadi resurfaces on social media

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Video and photographs allegedly showing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State (ISIS) group, emerged on jihadist social media platforms on Monday afternoon. 

In the footage, Baghdadi says the recent terrorist attack in Sri Lanka was an act of revenge for the group's defeat in Syria's Baghouz. 

The one-time “caliph” has not been in public since he announced the foundation of the ISIS statelet at the al-Nuri mosque in Mosul in 2014.

Several unconfirmed reports in recent years claimed he was killed in an airstrike. Others said he was hiding out in Iraq’s desert province of Anbar.

In a photograph published by ISIS media on Telegram, Baghdadi is seen seated next to an AK-47 assault rifle – a pose reminiscent of images of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

This is a developing story… 

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