Baghdadi breaks his silence: ISIL releases 'new recording of leader'

After almost a year of silence, a new audio message has been released purportedly from ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

In it, followers of his jihadist group are urged to attack the West, including its media, and to keep fighting in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

Russia said earlier this year that it might have killed Baghdadi in an air strike on the outskirts of Raqqa.

But leaders of the US-led coalition against ISIL had said Baghdadi was probably still alive.