Now the videos mostly urge fighters to be steadfast and call on the local population to join the group after hundreds of IS fighters have been killed over the past months. In the videos, the group boasted that Muslims from all over the world were flocking to what they called the “first caliphate” since the fall of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Slickly produced IS propaganda videos shot from multiple angles with religious songs in the background used to spread fear among the group’s opponents, with gruesome footage of beheadings, shootings, confessions of detainees and sophisticated attacks against their rivals. The quality of the videos has dropped as well after some of the extremists’ most prominent propagandists and producers were killed. The Islamic State group’s propaganda machine used to be confident, promising that its self-declared caliphate would be “lasting and expanding.” But in recent months, as the group’s territory has shrunk, its messages have as well.įar from the boastful, self-aggrandizing videos of the past, the group is now urging fighters to resist and not run away from the battlefield.
Posted by IS on social media in late May, the video contains a change in message and tone that reflects the pressure the extremist group is under as it continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria. “Every drop of blood that is spilled there will reduce pressure on us,” he added, gripping the steering wheel.ĭrone footage then showed the heavily armored SUV careening into a line of Iraqi troop vehicles parked outside a building in Mosul, followed by an explosion, a huge fire ball and a cloud of black smoke. “I urge you in the name of God that before sunset may your swords be dripping with the infidels’ blood,” said al-Maslawi, who appeared to be in his 50s, with a long gray beard and a black Islamic skull cap. Then, turning toward the camera, the one-legged suicide bomber spoke his final words, urging Muslims in the West who cannot come to the extremists’ self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, to carry out attacks inside their home countries. BEIRUT > Supported by crutches and a fellow Islamic State jihadi, Abu Shuaib al-Maslawi hopped on his left leg toward the explosives-laden black SUV that he would minutes later plow into a group of Iraqi troops in the northern city of Mosul.