He urged Sunni Muslims to use the time of piety and dawn-to-dusk fasting as an occasion to wage jihad and seek martyrdom.
"Attack them everywhere and shake the ground beneath them," he said in the morale-boosting message, his voice rising. "If you lose territory, you will win it back and more in the future, God willing."It was not immediately possible to verify the recording, but it resembled previous audio statements from the group.
The capture of Ein Issa does not necessarily mean that the immediate next move by the Kurdish forces and their allies will be to march on Raqqa, but it appears to have unsettled some of the city's IS-linked residents.
The wives and children of IS fighters were leaving Raqqa in droves Tuesday in anticipation of a possible attack, while the militants have redeployed to positions to better defend the city, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group gets its information from a network of activists across Syria.
Its director, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Associated Press that a band of about 20 IS fighters who had hidden in Ein Issa when the Kurdish troops stormed it have re-emerged, and battles were raging in the city. Other groups of IS fighters were also engaging the Kurds on the outskirts. He had no casualty figures and there was no immediate confirmation of continuing fighting.
The first step toward capturing Ein Issa came Monday night when its "Brigade 93" — a Syrian army military base that had been captured by the IS — was taken over by the Kurdish forces, according to the observatory and Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali.
"Ein Issa and dozens of villages around it are under our control," said Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG. The next task is to reinforce and protect these areas because they know IS will strike back, he told AP.
The Observatory said the YPG and its allies are also trying to gain control of a key highway linking Aleppo, Syria's largest city, with the northeastern city of Hassakeh.
The YPG's official Facebook page said "dozens of Daesh mercenaries were killed" at the Brigade 93 base. The Observatory said the bodies of 26 IS fighters killed by airstrikes in Ein Issa were taken to Raqqa.
"Operations will continue, but it is imperative that we first attempt to secure areas under our control," said Nawaf Khalil, head of the Germany-based Kurdish Center for Studies. "Raqqa is a vast area, and attacking it will need a great deal of coordination with other groups and the international alliance."
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