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ISIS Leader Resurrected Online, Claims He Is Healthy A Month After Allegedly Fatal Air Strike

REUTERS/Emmanuel Braun/File Photo

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JP Carroll National Security & Foreign Affairs Reporter
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The leader of Islamic State’s main African operation, Boko Haram, bragged on social media Sunday that he is in a “happy state” after reports he was seriously injured in an airstrike last month.

Abubakar Shekau mocked the Nigerian military in a 40-minute video on social media, saying in part, “Oh tyrants, I’m in a happy state, in good health and in safety.” Shekau’s announcement that he is alive and well comes after he was reportedly fired by Islamic State as the leader of its West African campaign.

Boko Haram is the terror group responsible for kidnapping over 200 Nigerian girls in 2014, which prompted the Twitter hashtag movement, #BringBackOurGirls. It was tweeted out by many celebrities at the time, as well as first lady Michelle Obama. Shekau stated in his online address that he is willing to release the girls in exchange for certain Boko Haram militants in Nigerian prisons.

“You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me and here I am,” Shekau said in his online tirade. The Nigerian Islamist extremist terrorist’s video come in the wake of an Aug. 23 Nigerian military operation which killed many of Islamic State’s leaders and allegedly seriously wounded Shekau.

This is not the first time that Shekau has taken to social media to prove that he is alive. In 2013 as well as 2014, he has been reported dead. After 2014 reports of his death, Shekau showed up online gleefully announcing, ““Here I am, alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath.”

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