ISIS propaganda urges terrorists to stage knife attacks

CHICAGO -- There's a chilling new offensive by ISIS terrorists: propaganda in an ISIS publication is urging jihadist sympathizers to stage knife attacks in public places.

In the ISIS directive called "just terror tactics," radical Islamists are urged to select victims who are walking down quiet roads, enjoying time in a public park or moving through an alley close to a night club and then stab or slash them.

These random attacks, aimed at terrorizing so-called "infidels," are put forth in the Islamic State's new multi-language propaganda magazine "Rumiyah."

A gruesome cover story in the new ISIS magazine, outlines terrorism's latest front: anywhere a knife can be carried. The instruction manual prescribes certain kinds of knives, lays out stabbing technique and helps squeamish would-be jihadists get past the up-close and personal nature of a knife attack versus guns or bombs which are more hands off.

In August, during a knife attack at a Virginia apartment complex, authorities said 20-year-old Wasil Farooqui shouted "Allah-u-Akbar", which translates to "God is great," and then waged the knife assault. Other successful knife and machete attacks seem to have encouraged ISIS leaders to push the stabbing initiative, including the attack on Gerald and Debbie Russellin in a Columbus, Ohio restaurant last February, when a man known to the FBI walked in.

"The minute this guy attacked me it's a miracle I'm alive today," one of the victims said.

911 CALL: Some guy pulled out a machete and started stabbing people.

OPERATOR: Okay, how many people are hurt? One seriously. We need an ambulance very badly.

The restaurant is owned by an Israeli man from Columbus. The attacker, identified as 30-year-old Mohammed Barry, went table to table, according to police, hacking at customers who defended themselves with chairs.

"I was on the ground and I just thought, you know, at any moment I am going to get a knife in my back," one witness said.

Police ended up shooting and killing the man with the machete.

Most recently, there was the ISIS operative dressed in a security uniform who last month stormed a Minneapolis mall and stabbed nine people.

More of those random attacks are encouraged in the article, with ISIS leaders noting that knives like this are easy to obtain, legal to own and effective weapons of terror.

Chicago Police sources said they are aware of the ISIS knife threat. Despite the general urging of knife attacks by ISIS leaders, FBI officials in Chicago said there are "no known threats to the Northern District of Illinois."

But the use of knives by single jihadists is gaining popularity around the world, in Brussels, London and in Normandy, France in July, when two attackers killed a catholic pastor with knives.