Page 136 - Caliphate News Today

This operation. >> bobby, americans are now thinking, we remember those isis-inspired attacks in our homeland. what does this mean for the future of isis now, what, five years old, right? >> for a couple of years now, isis has been morphing, its gone from being the caliphate. an organization that has very large piece of territory to once again returning to terrorism 101, if you remember. hit and run, influencing people through the internet. looking for lone wolves, less successfully in the u.s. ...

That was the mission for the last five years. that mission successfully overthrew the caliphate. it ran a large piece of iraq and syria. that mipgs was progressing, it was successful and then last march the mission had gotten so successful that the isis caliphate was toppled and the leader, as courtney was saying, then went into hiding. he issued a few audio recordings but was on run. he no longer ran the caliphate. but he was trying to rebuild the isis fighters. as all of this was happening, th...

The united states. former chief of staff and security analyst and jobi warwick for the "washington post" and author of "black flags," the rise of isis. joey, let me start with you. it came out in april showing a grayer bearded al baghdadi. this is a far cry from what we saw at the beginning of his tenure when there were slickly produced videos designed to recruit people to that group. this looking more like proof of life video you could say after that five years. help us understand the role that...

In 2014 when he declared the caliphate, he stood only miles from us here and spoke to his followers. there have been a number of times in the course of the next five years where there have been reports that he might be wounded, injured or even killed that have not proven true that we think. the wounded ones were not really sure about. there was a time we thought he might be wounded and laid up and not going anywhere. he put out this new video just earlier this year that you mentioned. he believe...

There was a lot of transit between syria and iraq by al baghdadi. >> reporter: no one really knew. we heard he made his home in mosul. the caliphate called the real crown jewel. they were a terrorist organization. islamic state, the thing that made them special throughout the world, they had this caliphate. so abu bakr al baghdadi could have found refuge in that state. that was basically defeated back in march. the caliphate was destroyed in eastern syria. so he became an exile. he had to become...

Of mr. baghdadi in 2014 when they overran one-third of iraq and half of neighboring sorry kra and declared the territory a caliphate. then a video surfaced of him in april cross-legged on the ground with a rifle by his right elbow. he has been erroneously reported killed or wounded multiple times. >> in the paft we have foolishing released hundreds and hundreds only to meet them again on the battlefield, including the isis leader al baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released. >> join...

Not sure if thats where they were coming from. officials confirmed there were jets and drones involved in this operation. then the choppers left. it ended with two big explosions. and now we have a grew there now filming in the area. we will begin getting the pictures out later. there were at least two locations that were hit. one building closer to the witnesss house, and then this main target that is now just a hole in the groupnd. >> rich engel in northwest syria. as richard was talking, we s...

You can see there the wide scale reduction, the u.s. air sight soft suspected isis safehouse to mere rubble after the special forces operation. nbc chief correspondent richard engel joins us live from northern syria. richard, you have been to this particular area where this raid took place. is it surprising to you that this is where al baghdadi may have been hiding? >> reporter: not at all. he was running out of places to go. he once had an isis state he called it the caliphate. >> that isis sta...

About that. look, we know that american president has said that they have defeated 100% of the caliphate, but that is a physical loss, right? because it is different than the defeat of the isis ideology. >> absolutely. so the defeat of the physical caliphate in iraq and syria and isis is no longer controlling the territory the way they had from 2014 to 2017, and 2018. so as you mentioned, alex, the ideology still exists, and it is something to keep track of with the death of baghdadi, there are ...

Control, and really the ideological magnate he was for people he really did embody. i interviewed followers of the islamic state who told me they have come because of his call, to come and build his caliphate. to see him no longer in the war, for those who continue to believe in the ideology of isis. >> we are waiting for the president. we see the podium there. how is this being introduced to the public. 9:00 in the morning on a sunday. this feels similar to the announcement he made on syria a c...