Al-Qaida magazine gives tips on killing

The 74-page issue advises would-be militants to open fire “at a crowded restaurant in Washington DC, at lunch hour”, in the hope of “knocking out a few government employees”.

Renegade American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki penned two of the articles, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Awlaki is on a United States government kill-or-capture list for his alleged role in the attempted Detroit plane bombing last Christmas.

Another American, Samir Khan, describes how he went from online jihadist in North Carolina to full-time terrorist in Yemen, in his article I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America.“A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington, DC at lunch ... might end up knocking out a few government employees,” writes one of the authors.

The SITE group says it studies, tracks and analyses the global jihadist network and terrorism financing.

Brookings Institution terror expert Bruce Riedel said the article showed the group “is not under significant pressure”.

The article came in time for the 10th anniversary of the Al-Qaida suicide bombers’ attack on the the US destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni port on October 12 2000, killing 17 American sailors.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has taken root in Yemen’s remote Shabwa province, far from the reach of the country’s weak central government.

The group rose towards the top of the security agenda of the US and other world powers after it was linked to the failed Christmas Day attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound US airliner.

The magazine’s content reveals the group’s evolving strategy of rejecting easier-to-stop spectacular attacks in favour of one-man operations, using everyday objects.

The first edition included an article called Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom. The new edition includes The Ultimate Mowing Machine, which describes how to use a pick-up truck “as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah”.