Egypt Jihadists Vow Loyalty to IS as Iraq Probes Leader's Fate
The leader of the Islamic State organization won the allegiance of Egypt's deadliest militant group Monday as Iraqi authorities investigated reports he had been killed or wounded in a U.S. air strike.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has carried out a string of deadly attacks from its stronghold in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, said it was pledging its loyalty to the self-declared IS "caliph", Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Speculation has swirled that Baghdadi, whose group has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, was killed or wounded in a U.S. strike on jihadist leaders in northern Iraq on Friday, but officials said there was no confirmation.
"There is no accurate information and we are investigating," a senior intelligence official told AFP on Monday when asked about Baghdadi's fate.
In a recording posted on its Twitter account, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis promised its loyalty to IS and urged other Muslims to do the same.
"We announce our pledge of allegiance to the caliph Ibrahim Ibn Awad... to listen and obey," the audio recording said, using another name for Baghdadi.
"We call on all Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the caliph and support him," the recording said.
It was the most significant vow of support for IS in the region outside Iraq and Syria, suggesting its influence over militant groups is overshadowing its once dominant Al-Qaida rivals.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which means "Partisans of Jerusalem", has killed scores of police and soldiers since the Egyptian army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year.
It was not immediately clear whether its pledge of allegiance would mean a shift in tactics to attack Western targets in Egypt, as demanded by the IS leadership.
IS declared a "caliphate" in areas under its control in June, imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread atrocities.
Concerned after it overran large parts of Iraq from its previous base in Syria, Washington forged a coalition of Western and Arab allies to launch air raids against the group in both countries.
Strikes hit a gathering of IS leaders late on Friday near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Pentagon said, sparking reports that Baghdadi may have been killed or wounded there, or in a separate strike in western Anbar province.
The death of the elusive IS leader would be a major victory for the coalition, but U.S. and Iraqi officials have so far been unable to confirm he was targeted.
It is unclear whether officials even know if he was at the gathering, given the dearth of intelligence from IS-held areas of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday that the battle against IS was entering a "new phase" after several months of air strikes, with the focus moving to tackling the jihadists on the ground.
"Rather than just try to halt (IS's) momentum, we're now in a position to start going on some offense," Obama said, after earlier unveiling plans to send up to 1,500 more American troops to Iraq to advise and train its forces.
Obama, who pulled U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011, again vowed that they would not be engaged in combat under the new mission.
Going on the offensive will be a significant challenge for Iraq's forces, which saw multiple divisions fall apart in the early days of the jihadist offensive, leaving major units that need to be reconstituted.
Iraqi pro-government forces have made some recent gains against IS -- including a breakthrough last week that saw them take more than 70 percent of the northern town of Baiji -- but the need to train Iraqi forces means large-scale offensive operations are not likely to take place for some time.
As well as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis in Egypt, several other jihadist groups in Libya and Algeria have pledged allegiance to IS.
While it is clear the group's influence is growing, major Al-Qaida branches have not recognized Baghdadi's authority and its Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front has clashed with IS fighters.
But analysts are warning that IS, considered by many to be even more brutal and violent than Al-Qaida, is becoming the worldwide benchmark for jihadists.
"(IS has) definitively dethroned Al-Qaida as the ultimate reference point for global jihad," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a specialist on radical Islam at the Sciences Po research institute in Paris.
Source: Agence France Presse
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