BEIRUT: A powerful militants group known for its ruthless tactics and systemic abuses in the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts announced on Sunday the establishment of a "caliphate", or Islamist state.
In an audio recording distributed online, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) declared its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "the caliph" and "leader for Muslims everywhere".
The militants said they would impose their caliphate on areas they have conquered in Syria and Iraq.
"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 ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani.
"The militants cleric Baghdadi was designated the caliph of the Muslims," said Adnani, adding that the caliphate will extend "from Aleppo to Diyala" in Iraq.
Baghdadi "has accepted this allegiance, and has thus become the leader for Muslims everywhere".
"The words 'Iraq' and 'the Levant' have been removed from the name of the Islamic State in official papers and documents," Adnani said, describing the caliphate as "the dream in all the Muslims' hearts" and "the hope of all jihadists".
Ever since the Prophet Mohammed's death, a caliph was designated "the prince" or emir "of the believers".
After the first four caliphs who succeeded Mohammed, the caliphate lived its golden age in the Omayyad empire from the year 661 to 750, and then under the Abbasids, from 750 to 1517.
It was abolished when the Ottoman empire collapsed in 1924. In the recording, Adnani demanded that "all Muslims all pledge allegiance to the caliph".
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