Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Tuesday that ISIS remains a potent threat around the world despite reduced capabilities.
A video released late on Monday by ISIS’ media network showed a man it said was the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The video would be the first from Baghdadi since he was filmed in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014. More recent speeches have been released as audio recordings.
The Iraqi PM said Baghdadi had made his latest video appearance in a "remote area".
Abdul Mahdi did not say which country that area was in.
"Regarding the location of Baghdadi, we can't give intelligence information right now but it's clear from the video that he's in a remote area," Abdul Mahdi said at a news conference on a visit to Berlin.
Baghdadi, an Iraqi, is believed to be hiding out in an isolated area of either Iraq or Syria, part of vast desert regions ISIS once held and from where it is thought the militants are now waging regular insurgent-style attacks against security forces in both countries.
Hisham al-Hashemi, a security adviser to the Iraqi government, said officials had narrowed his whereabouts from 17 to a possible four locations.
"These are in the desert of Iraq's Anbar (province) or in the (eastern) desert of Homs in Syria," he said.
A US-backed campaign ended ISIS’ control of territory in Iraq in late 2017 and in Syria last month, nearly five years after the group took over vast areas in both countries.
