DAKAR, Senegal — An affiliate of the Islamic State in Nigeria has claimed responsibility for the execution of 11 people, saying the killings were in retaliation for the death of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria in October. A video released on Thursday showed members of the Nigerian affiliate slashing the throats of 10 people and shooting an additional person. The Islamic State, or ISIS, has lost all of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, but it remains a threat even after Mr. al-Baghdadi was killed in an American raid on his hide-out in northwestern Syria. In addition to the affiliate in Nigeria, which is known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, groups in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Sinai and the Sahel, a 3,000-mile stretch of land south of the Sahara, also claim allegiance to ISIS. The members of the Islamic State West Africa Province, which is known by the acronym ISWAP, left the Islamic militant group Boko Haram in 2016.

Source: International New York Times December 28, 2019 00:45 UTC