CHILLING

ISIS Releases al-Baghdadi Message on Mosul

His first message since the Iraqi offensive began.

ISIS has released a new audio recording that purports to be of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi addressing the U.S.-backed efforts to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul. “This... total war and the great jihad that the state of Islamic is fighting today only increases our firm belief, God willing, and our conviction that all this is a prelude to victory,” al-Baghdadi said in an audio clip posted online Thursday by supporters of the terror group. In the message, his first since the Iraqi forces began their offensive on the city, al-Baghdadi called on Mosul residents to become suicide fighters and “turn the nights of the unbelievers into days, to wreck havoc in their land, and make their blood flow as rivers.”