Syria-Iraq Caliph Urges Muslims to Join in Jihad in “New Era”

Reuters reports that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, “has called on Muslims worldwide to take up arms and flock to the ‘caliphate’ it has declared on captured Syrian and Iraqi soil.” al-Baghdadi proclaimed a “new era,” one in which Muslims will ultimately triumph, in a nearly 20-minute audio message posted to the internet.

“It was his first purported message since the group proclaimed the caliphate on Sunday and declared him its leader, in an audacious bid to sweep away state borders and redraw the map of the Middle East,” the wire says. “Baghdadi, who has assumed the mediaeval title of caliph, used the message to seek to assert authority over Muslims everywhere. He called on them to rise up and avenge the alleged wrongs committed against their religion, from Central African Republic to Myanmar.”

Meanwhile, the AP reports that ISIS captured the Iraqi border town of Boukamal from other rebel groups after days of battles. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-backed watchdog, said the group brought in reinforcements from Iraq during the fighting.

Former Saudi Intel Chief: Syria “A Festering Wound” That Fostered ISIS

Christiane Amanpour of CNN interviews former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, who calls Syria “a festering wound that collects the worst bacteria in the world” and is largely responsible for the strength of ISIS and other extremist factions.

“My personal view is that the conflict in Syria particularly has been a main source of this growth in these terrorist activities,” he says. ISIS “is a terrorist organization that has specialized in brutal killings. So it is a danger to the whole area and I think to the rest of the world.”

The Kingdom also has “great distaste,” as Amanpour says, for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite.

“The problem in Iraq is more than ISIS. It is a popular uprising by the people stretching from the borders in Syria across to Mosul against the government of al-Maliki,” al-Faisal tells her. “By all accounts, the president of Maliki [sic] does not represent all Iraqis. And therefore finding one that can unify the various social and political structure of Iraq is the most important priority now.”

Had “certain measures been taken a few years back,” he adds, “we would not be in this situation today.”

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