Isis leader Al-Baghdadi appears in video for first time in five years
Video released by Islamic State comes weeks after remnants of group were ousted from last stronghold in Syria
The fugitive Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appeared in a propaganda video for the first time in five years, in which he recognises the terror group’s defeat in the Syrian town of Baghouz.
The appearance is only Baghdadi’s second on video, and comes weeks after the remnants of Isis were ousted from their last organised stronghold in the eastern Syrian desert. Looking heavier than when he proclaimed the existence of the now collapsed caliphate in mid-2014, Baghdadi blamed its demise on the “savagery” of Christians.