Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the ISIS group, purportedly appeared for the first time in five years in a propaganda video released by the organization Monday.
It is unclear when the footage was filmed, but the man said to be Baghdadi referred in the past tense to the months-long fight for Baghouz, ISIS's final bastion in eastern Syria, which ended last month.
"The battle for Baghouz is over," the man said, sitting cross-legged on a cushion and addressing three men whose faces have been blurred.
But he insisted that ISIS's operations against the West were part of a "long battle," and that ISIS would "take revenge" on members who had been killed.
Baghdadi, 47, had a long grey beard that appeared dyed with henna and spoke slowly, often pausing for several seconds in the middle of his sentences.
He appeared for the first and last time in public in Mosul in 2014, after ISIS swept through swathes of territory ISIS then held in Syria and Iraq.
He was reported killed or injured multiple times since then.
His last voice recording to his supporters was released in August, eight months after Iraq announced it had defeated ISIS and as US-backed forces closed in next door in Syria.
