BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s military spokesman says officials are working to determine the authenticity of a video that purportedly shows the leader of a Sunni extremist group that has seized large swaths of the country delivering a sermon this week in a northern city.
Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said Sunday Iraq’s security services are still analyzing the video posted online a day earlier of a man said to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leading Friday prayers at the Great Mosque in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
He says the government will “announce the details once they are available.”
The 21-minute video was released on at least two websites known to be used by the Islamic State group and bore the logo of its media arm.
There are only a few known photographs of al-Baghdadi.