© Reuters
The speaker in the recording, who couldn't be verified as Baghdadi, tried to explain to the Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS/ISIL) supporters that victory or defeat for them shouldn't be about controlling territories and cities or achieving military superiority, the SITE intelligence group reported.
The formerly powerful IS, which controlled vast areas in Iraq and Syria a few years ago, has now been crushed in both countries and holds only small pieces of land in the desert.
In the 55-minute-long audio, published by the group's al-Furqan media outlet, the person claiming to be Baghdadi also called on his followers to persevere and lashed out at foreign media for waging an information campaign against Islamic State.
Reports of Baghdadi being dead or seriously injured in airstrikes had emerged on numerous occasions since the rise of IS in 2014, but they never received official confirmation from the militaries of Iraq, Syria, the US or Russia.
A previous statement attributed to the jihadist leader was released in late September last year and was also aimed at dispelling rumors of his demise.
According to some reports, Baghdadi may currently be in hiding somewhere in the Iraqi-Syrian border region.
Comment: Baghdadi is either the cat with nine lives, secretly hiding out in some safe country, or a media creation at this point. It's hard to say which. But it's always strange to see the Israeli-intel-linked outfit SITE breaking exclusive news on jihadist statements. It's almost as if they're provided the inside scoop...