Make their blood flow as rivers, Daesh leader urges followers

Cairo/Baghdad - Daesh leader confident in victory, in first message about Mosul battle

Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi expressed confidence in victory, in his first message after US-backed Iraqi forces started an offensive to take back Mosul, the last major city under control of his group in Iraq.
He also called on Daesh fighters to invade Turkey.
The authenticity of the 31-minute-long recording could not be verified.
The previous message purportedly coming from Baghdadi was from December 2015, an audio recording that reassured followers and supporters that airstrikes by Russia and the US-led coalition had failed to weaken the group in Syria.
Baghdadi, an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim Al Samarrai, called on the population of Mosul's Nineveh province not to weaken in the fight against the enemies.
He also called on the group's suicide fighters to "turn the nights of the unbelievers into days, to wreak havoc in their land and make their blood flow as rivers."
The battle that started on Oct. 17 with air and ground support from a US-led coalition is shaping up as the largest in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
Mosul still has a population of 1.5 million people, much more than any of the other cities captured by Daesh two years ago in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
Baghdadi told Daesh's fighters to "unleash the fire of their anger" on Turkish troops fighting them in Syria, and to take the battle into Turkey.
"Turkey today entered your range of action and the aim of your fighters... invade it and turn its safety into fear."
Daesh has been retreating since last year in both Iraq and Syria, in the face of a myriad of different forces.
In Iraq, it is fighting US-backed Iraqi government and Kurdish forces.
In Syria, it is fighting Turkish-backed Syrian rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, US-backed Kurdish fighters as well as Russian- and Syrian army units loyal to Assad and foreign militias.
Baghadi told his followers to launch "attack after attack" in Saudi Arabia, targeting security forces, government officials, members of the ruling Al Saud family and media outlets, for "siding with the infidel nations in the war and in Iraq and Syria."
deash's leader also said "the their power was not affected" by the death of some of its senior commanders, mentioning Abu Muhammad Al Adnani and Abu Muhammad Al Furqan, both killed earlier this year in US airstrikes.

• MENA