At the very end of Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi’s first video appearance in nearly five years, the greying Isis leader is handed folders that bear the names of areas across the world where the jihadi group continues to harbour global visions.

“This battle will have a sequel, God willing,” he said.

There are folders for Isis “wilayat” – meaning provinces – for Somalia, Yemen, the Caucasus, West Africa, Central Africa and Turkey.

The self-declared “caliphate” that once stretched for thousands of miles and ruled over millions of people is gone – but it is clear that Isis’s grand ambitions remain.

The militants have made significant inroads into sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, as seen in the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka, and are still able to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Iraq and Syria.

A top US counterterrorism official this week warned that Isis continues to pose a “dire threat” throughout the world – and said the administration is now looking at how best to next strike the jihadists.

Timeline of the Isis caliphate Show all 19 1 /19 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Timeline of the Isis caliphate ISIS began as a group by the merging of extremist organisations ISI and al-Nusra in 2013. Following clashes, Syrian rebels captured the ISIS headquarters in Aleppo in January 2014 (pictured) AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the creation of a caliphate in Mosul on 27 June 2014 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis conquered the Kurdish towns of Sinjar and Zumar in August 2014, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Pictured are a group of Yazidi Kurds who have fled Rex Timeline of the Isis caliphate On September 2 2014 Isis released a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. On September 13 they released another video showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines Timeline of the Isis caliphate The US launched its first airstrikes against Isis in Syria on 23 September 2014. Here Lt Gen William C Mayville Jnr speaks about the bombing campaign in the wake of the first strikes Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis militants sit atop a hill planted with their flag in the Syrian town of Kobani on 6 October 2014. They had been advancing on Kobani since mid-September and by now was in control of the city’s entrance and exit points AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Residents of the border village of Alizar keep guard day and night as they wait in fear of mortar fire from Isis who have occupied the nearby city of Kobani Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Smoke rises following a US airstrike on Kobani, 28 October 2014 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate YPG fighters raise a flag as they reclaim Kobani on 26 January 2015 VOA Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on 20 May 2015. This image show the city from above days after its capture by Isis Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces are stationed on a hill above the town of Sinjar as smoke rises following US airstrikes on 12 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces enter Sinjar after seizing it from Isis control on 13 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi government forces make the victory sign as they retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS on 26 June 2016 Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi forces battle with Isis for the city of Mosul on 30 June 2017 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of the Iraqi federal police raise flags in Mosul on 8 July 2017. On the following day, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over Isis in Mosul Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim Square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in January 2019 They were among the last civilians to be living in the ISIS caliphate, by this time reduced to just two small villages in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor Richard Hall/The Independent Timeline of the Isis caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate, on Saturday 26 January 2019 Richard Hall/The Independent

“We’ve won great victories in the battlefield,” said ambassador Nathan A Sales, the US State Department’s top counterterrorism coordinator, during a talk at the Brookings Institution.

“Now we need to match them with victories in our courtrooms, at our borders, in our banks and online.”

I get nervous when someone like Baghdadi pops up just before Ramadan Theodore Karasik, Gulf State Analytics

But he warned that the greatest threat was Isis’s Afghanistan branch, the so-called Khorasan wilayat, which controls territory and carries out nearly daily attacks on civilians and military targets.

In moving away from an emphasis on military force to crush Isis, the US wants to restrict efforts to move money through banks and personnel across borders – a policy prescription that fits particularly well with the Trump administration’s hostility to immigration.

“We need to harden our borders to prevent terrorist travels,” said Mr Sales, citing what he claimed were “hundreds” of fighters who’ve made their way back to Europe and southeast Asia after the defeats in the Middle East.

Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years

He also reiterated the call on governments around the world to extradite and try their nationals who left to join Isis – a move governments in the UK and Western Europe have been so far reluctant to make for fear of not having enough evidence to prosecute.

“The US calls on all countries to take their citizens back, to take them off the battlefield, and most importantly, to prosecute them,” he said, adding that criminal prosecution “is the most effective way to prevent these fighters from returning to the battlefield”.

Mr Sales said the US has begun a project with Nato and the UN to develop criteria for collecting battlefield evidence to use in court against Isis suspects.

But experts doubt that any US strategy would curtail the rise of jihadist militancy without deep changes across a restless Muslim world dominated by brutal autocrats, including those that crushed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and who remain close Washington allies.

The Isis leader has folders for each of the group’s ‘wilyat’, or provinces (Al-Furqan media/AFP/Getty)

“As a military organisation and a proto-state it’s defeated, but as an insurgency it can insert into areas of Sunni dissatisfaction,” one incoming US official told The Independent, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

“The underlying reasons why the Arab uprisings erupted haven’t been resolved, and it’s only a matter of time before some version of Isis emerges.”

Though Mr Sales also spoke of curtailing the funding, travel and online presence of the group, many of their terrorist operations don’t require a lot of money as they utilise operatives already inside the country, and are inspired and planned through communications networks that are close to impossible to shut down.

The Baghdadi video took officials by surprise and left them scrambling to glean clues about his whereabouts.

“Isis is not just a small organisation,” said Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s prime minister, during a press conference in Berlin.

“It’s widespread and will try to put confidence back in its militants and carry out acts such as those in Sri Lanka.”

Experts also warn that the group is evolving and refining its tactics, with the video suggesting a new phase in the jihadi group’s emphases.

“It illustrated that the concept of wilayat can be physical, virtual or metaphysical,” Theodore Karasik, a researcher at Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based consultancy, told The Independent.

The Sri Lanka attack even suggested a hint of irony, deploying suicide bombers in the country where Tamil Tiger rebels first perfected such attacks.

The underlying reasons why the Arab uprisings erupted haven’t been resolved Incoming US official

“For Islamic State to do this is a remarkable feat that they pulled off with precision,” he added.

The video emerged soon after the high-profile attack, and just before the Islamic calendar month of Ramadan – a time for religiously motivated sacrifice across the Muslim world.

A recent report by the Institute for the Study of War has warned that Isis has long stepped up attacks during the lunar month, expected to begin around 6 May.

“I get nervous when someone like Baghdadi pops up just before Ramadan,” said Mr Karasik.