On May 13, 2015, Abu Walid declared his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and formed Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Not all of Murabitoun accepted the move, with Mokhtar Belmokhtar denying that al-Murabitoun had pledged to Baghdadi, causing a split in the group. More than a year and a half later the allegiance was publicly accepted by IS's Amaq news agency.[4]