ISIS establishes “Islamic Caliphate”

Islamist militants fighting in Iraq and Syria announced the establishment of a ‘caliphate’, reports “Armenpress”, referring to Arab media.

In an audio recording distributed online, the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS) declared its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “the caliph” and “leader for Muslims everywhere”.

“The Shura (council) of the Islamic State met and discussed this issue (of the caliphate)... The Islamic State decided to establish an Islamic caliphate and to designate a caliph for the state of the Muslims,” said ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani. “The jihadist cleric Baghdadi was designated the caliph of the Muslims,” said Adnani.

The crisis in Iraq is said to rival the brutal sectarian war of 2006-2007, with more than 1,000 killed and hundreds of thousands displaced within weeks.

Alarmed world leaders have urged a speeding up of government formation following April elections, warning the conflict cannot be resolved by force alone.

The onslaught that ISIS led this month overran parts of five Iraqi provinces after capturing the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor near Iraq, Raqa in the north, and parts of Aleppo province.

Its leader Baghdadi, who once spent time in an American military prison in Iraq, is increasingly seen as even more powerful than Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has raised grave concern about human rights violations and “the rising number of civilian deaths and injuries, with over one million Iraqis having fled their homes due to the fighting”, his spokesman said.