In an audio message, Islamic State calls on Muslims to launch a ''holy war'' against Russia, as a response to Moscow's two-week-old bombing campaign against IS in Syria. Mana Rabiee reports.
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The newly-released audio message from Islamic State supporters targets Russia, not just the United States and its allies. In it, an IS spokesman calls on Muslims to attack both Russians and Americans over what it calls their "crusaders' war" in the Middle East. The message comes two weeks after Moscow began airstrikes over Syria ostensibly to hit IS targets. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SAID TO BE VOICE OF ISLAMIC STATE SPOKESMAN, ABU MOHAMMAD AL-ADNANI, SAYING: "Russia and the U.S.A, you will be defeated. You and your army and your allies will be forced into hell and the worst of fates. America thinks it will defeat the mujahideen, but you and your allies will fail." Russia and the United States are both carrying out separate airstrike campaigns in Syria on Islamic State. The U.S. is also carrying out air strikes in neighboring Iraq, where IS has taken territory and where Russia, too, is now separately involved in an intelligence gathering capacity. The audio message also confirms the death of an IS leader whom the U.S. says was killed in an August air strike and was the group's second-in-command.