Thursday, November 13, 2014

ISIS leader Urges Attacks in Saudi Arabia - speech

From the Thompson Reuters Foundation:
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech purported to be in his name on Thursday, saying his self-declared caliphate was expanding there and in four other Arab countries.

Baghdadi also said a U.S.-led military campaign against his group in Syria and Iraq was failing and he called for "volcanoes of jihad" the world over.

Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the speech - an audio recording carried on Islamic State-run social media. The voice sounded similar to a previous speech delivered by Baghdadi in July in a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the last time he spoke in public.

It followed contradictory accounts out of Iraq after U.S. air strikes last Friday about whether he was wounded in a raid. The United States said on Tuesday it could not confirm whether he was killed or wounded in Iraq following a strike near the city of Falluja.

Baghdadi urged supporters in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, to take the fight to the rulers of the kingdom, which has joined the U.S.-led coalition in mounting air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

"O sons of al-Haramayn...the serpent's head and the stronghold of the disease are there...draw your swords and divorce life, because there should be no security for the Saloul," Baghdadi said, using a derogatory term to refer to the leadership of Saudi Arabia....blah, blah, blah...MORE

And what would ISIS use as a pretext?
Oh, I dunno, maybe: