Islamic State leader Urges Attacks In Saudi Arabia

Snip:
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.

The speech followed contradictory accounts out of Iraq after U.S. air strikes last Friday about whether he was wounded in a raid. U.S. officials said on Tuesday they could not confirm whether Baghdadi was hit in a strike near Falluja in Iraq.

In Washington on Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she could not confirm the recording's authenticity and said Washington and others were likely to increase efforts to counter the group’s claims to represent Islam.

"Clearly the brutality, the rhetoric, the efforts to incite, by any leaders of ISIL … is not a new phenomenon. It certainly is a reminder to everyone in the region and around the world of what their intentions are," Psaki told reporters.

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.

Haramayn is a reference to the two holiest places in Islam, both of them in Saudi Arabia.

Since Islamic State began an offensive in Iraq in June, Saudi Arabia has sent thousands of troops to the border area.

Link:
[link to news.yahoo.com (secure)]