The leader of Isis has issued an audio recording calling on fighters to attack Iraqi forces as soldiers enter Mosul for the first time in two years.
In the recording, released by the Isis-backed Al-Furqan media, a voice claimed to be that of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi can be heard saying: “Do not retreat.”
“Holding your ground with honour is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame.”
It is thought to be the Isis leader's first address in more than a year.
“This … total war and the great jihad that the Islamic State is fighting today only increases our firm belief, God willing, and our conviction that all this is a prelude to victory,” Baghdadi says.
The northern Iraqi city is where the jihadi group declared its “Caliphate” in 2014.
Baghdadi called on the population of Mosul's Nineveh province to fight the “enemies of God” and told fighters to “beware of any weakness in facing your enemy”.
He also urged suicide fighters to “turn the nights of the unbelievers into days, to wreak havoc in their land and make their blood flow as rivers.”
Baghdadi has remained concealed for the last eight or nine months, but is believed to be still inside the city, a senior Kurdish official has told The Independent.
His exact whereabouts remain unclear, and the recording does not mention Mosul. However, he mentions the death of senior Isis leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who was killed in Aleppo in August in a US airstrike, indicating the recording is less than two-months-old.
Mosul is the group's last major stronghold in Iraq. The US-led coalition estimates there are 3,000 to 5,000 Isis fighters in the city.
