Al Baghdadi Claims Al Qaeda Is Winning The Fight In Iraq In New Tape

The leader of al Qaeda-led Islamic State of Iraq Abu Omar al-Baghdadi denied in a new audio statement that his group has been defeated in Iraq. According to Baghdadi, it's his state that is steadily emerging victorious in its fight against the occupation, even if the decisive victory is yet to be achieved. "The main characteristics defining this victory is making God word the supreme, and that his laws would be fully implemented in the lands among the people, and that is what we have under the Islamic State of Iraq, even if the sweeping victory is not there just yet," al Baghdadi said.

He also denounced many of the Sunni insurgent factions who defected to the allied forces and the Shiites and conspired to kill members of the Islamic State of Iraq. "Come back to us for we never forgot that you were our friends. But if you refuse to repent, by God, killing an apostate is for us better than a hundred Crusades," al Baghdadi said, in an attempt to talk members of the former Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance into rejoining the ranks of his group.

Al Baghdadi finally extended his thanks to all those who supported the Islamic State of Iraq around the world and specifically to "the smugglers and forgers, the jihadi media officials, and those who are fighting on the ground."

This is the second audio statement by Baghdadi in less than two weeks. On September 9, he released another statement marking the second anniversary of the creation of the group, where he called on the militants in Iraq to keep up the attacks against occupation forces.

The US military had said that al Baghdadi was a fictitious character but this claim was challenged last May when Haditha's police chief told al Arabiya TV that al Baghdadi was in fact Hamed Dawood Mohammed Khalil al Zawi, a former officer of the Iraqi army.