Days after the Islamic State group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his heir apparent were killed in back-to-back attacks by U.S. forces in northern Syria, the group broke its silence Thursday to confirm their deaths, announce a new leader and warn America: “Do not be happy.”
In an audio recording uploaded on the Telegram app, the Islamic State mourned the loss of al-Baghdadi, who led the organization for nearly a decade, and its spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who was killed a day after al-Baghdadi and who had widely been considered a potential successor.
The audio recording was the first word from the Islamic State confirming the death of its leader, which President Donald Trump triumphantly announced Sunday as a huge blow to the world’s most fearsome terrorist group.