ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi talks about North Korea threats to US and Japan in newly released audio tape

ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has reportedly been
heard talking about North Korea threats to the US and
Japan in a newly released audio tape.
The terror group released the recording of its leader
on Thursday, the first communication from the elusive
jihadist leader in almost year during which the group
has lost much of the territory it controlled in Iraq and
Syria.
The date of the 46-minute recording, released via the
Al-Furqan news organisation, which is linked to the
jihadist group, was not clear.
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But Baghdadi makes reference to North Korean
threats against Japan and United States.
The audio release, much of which is dedicated to
religious scriptures, comes amid growing speculation
over the fate of the Baghdadi, whose last recorded
speech was issued in early November 2016, two
weeks after the start of the battle for Mosul, when he
urged his followers to fight the "unbelievers" and
"make their blood flow as rivers".
US-backed Iraqi forces have since defeated Islamic
State in Mosul, where Baghdadi declared a self-styled
caliphate three years ago.
Militants blew up Mosul's El Nuri mosque where
Baghdadi made his 2014 declaration after Islamic
State captured the city.
Officials have said they believed it could take years to
capture or kill Baghdadi as he is thought to be hiding
in thousands of square miles of sparsely-populated
desert between Mosul and Raqqa, where drones are
easy to spot.
Russia's defence ministry said earlier this year it may
have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a
gathering of senior Islamic State commanders on the
outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa but Washington
said it could not corroborate the death and Western
and Iraqi officials were sceptical.
War with North Korea is now a “real possibility” and
hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be killed
or injured, defence experts warned today.
A gruelling conflict would drag on with heavy losses
on both sides, according to a leading think tank’s
gloomy study of the deepening crisis gripping the
Korean peninsula.
Combat would “not be surgical or short”, analysts
feared.
Pyongyang is intent on developing a nuclear missile,
with Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump trading insults as
the drum beat to battle grows louder.
War could be triggered by either North Korea or the
US but there is a growing risk the US President will
decide to “resolve” the crisis “sooner rather than
later”, according to the Royal United Services
Institute.

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