An al-Qaida linked group which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria formally declared the establishment of a new Islamic state on Sunday and demanded allegiance from Muslims worldwide, The Associated Press reported.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant said they have renamed themselves "Islamic State" and proclaimed its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as "Caliph,"the head of the state, according the the statement said, according to the AP.
The announcement was released in a statement posted on Islamist websites and Twitter on Sunday, the AP reported.
"He is the imam and khalifah (Caliph) for the Muslims everywhere," the group's spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in the statement, which was translated into several languages and read out in an Arabic audio speech, according to the AP.
"Accordingly, the "Iraq and Sham" (Levant) in the name of the Islamic State is henceforth removed from all official deliberations and communications, and the official name is the Islamic State from the date of this declaration," he added, the AP reported.
The move poses a direct challenge to the central leadership of al-Qaida, which has disowned it, and to conservative Gulf Arab rulers who already view the group as a security threat, the AP reported.
The group seeks to re-create a medieval-style caliphate erasing borders from the Mediterranean to the Gulf and deems Shi'ite Muslims to be heretics deserving death, according to the AP.
"It is incumbent upon all Muslims to pledge allegiance to (him) and support him...The legality of all emirates, groups, states, and organizations, becomes null by the expansion of the khalifah's authority and arrival of its troops to their areas," the statement said, the AP reported.
Fighters from the group overran the Iraqi city of Mosul last month in a lightning action and have advanced towards Baghdad, according to the AP. They have captured territory in the north and east of Syria, along the frontier with Iraq.
