Islamic State Militancy Grows Behind al-Baghdadi's Leadership

It was the 20-minute sermon that shook the world. By any standard the oration delivered in July in the Grand Mosque of Mosul was both audacious and subversive, and has plunged the Middle East deeper into bloody turmoil. In announcing a caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the al-Qaida breakaway faction he calls the Islamic State, was throwing down the gauntlet - to established Muslim leaders and the West as well as fellow jihadists. With U.S. drones flying the skies above...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mercredi 31 décembre 2014