The Islamic State (IS) group's elusive chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has purportedly appeared for the first time in five years in a propaganda video released on Monday by the jihadist organisation.

It is unclear when the footage was filmed, but the man said to be Baghdadi referred to last week's deadly attack in Sri Lanka and to the months-long fight for IS's final bastion Baghouz, which ended in March. "The battle for Baghouz is over," he said, addressing three men whose faces have been blurred. "God ordered us to wage 'jihad'. He did not order us to win," he said. In a segment in which the man is not on camera, his voice referred to the April 21 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed 253 people and wounded nearly 500, as "vengeance for their brothers in Baghouz".