In video message, IS chief emulates other hunted leaders

They make threats from their hideaway lairs and celebrate mass attacks. The ending isn't scripted for these hunted men with horrifying death tolls on their hands.

When the reclusive Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared in a video Monday, he was the latest in a series of most-wanted figures to use the medium to communicate with the outside world.

Al-Baghdadi's goal was to dismiss suggestions of the extremist group's defeat and his own often-reported demise, claim responsibility for the recent Sri Lanka bombings on Easter and warn of a "long battle" ahead.

In the video, released by an IS-run media outlet, al-Baghdadi like others before him, such as Osama Bin Laden wanted to show he's alive and assure followers that the battle against "infidel enemies" continues.

"Audio and video messages by hunted figures is their way of rallying and reassuring followers that the group must carry on," said Colin P. Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

"In some cases, these messages could be intended to motivate supporters to launch attacks, either as individuals on in small groups."
Here's a look at some infamous and in some cases, chilling video and audio communications from terror leaders to a deposed president on the run:
Osama bin Laden
One of the most notorious figures in modern history, the al-Qaeda chief bin Laden orchestrated various assaults building up to the September 11 attacks. Shortly after US and NATO forces attacked Afghanistan in October 2001, a video statement emerged of him saying Allah had hit America at its "most vulnerable point ... destroying its most prestigious buildings."
Speaking of the bombers, bin Laden says: "We did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes."
"Bin Laden really perfected the use of audio and video tapes," Clarke said. "When a new bin Laden tape was released, everyone stopped what they were doing to listen and see what the world's most wanted man had to say."
Ayman al-Zawahri
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
Saddam Hussein