Isis tells terrorists to use Craigslist and eBay to lure hostages by listing items for sale

Isis have urged its followers to use sales websites like Craigslist and eBay to lure unsuspecting victims to their homes before taking them hostage and killing them.

The latest edition of the Isis magazine, Rumiyah, published tutorials on vehicle, knife and arson attacks for so-called "lone wolf" terrorists planning attacks in the West.

Published in 10 languages the magazine offers a guide on how to select a target and, "lure him to an appropriate location before attacking, subduing, binding and then slaughtering them".

Isis is losing territory in Syria and Iraq as they are driven back with the aid of US-led airstrikes.

As they begin to crumble many analysts fear that they will focus increasingly on smaller attacks on the west before they are banished from the two largest cities they are present in, Raqqa and Mosul.

Would-be terrorists are advised to advertise items for sale on second-hand buy and sell websites or even to advertise potential jobs to lure victims to lure victims.

The ninth edition magazine says: "Online sales by way of buy and sell websites such as Craigslist, Gumtree, eBay, the Loot and others are an alternative means to luring one's victims."

The terrorists say their operatives should use: "The language of force, the language of killing, stabbing and slitting throats, chopping off heads, flattening them under trucks, and burning them alive, until they give the jizyah [tax] while they are in a state of humiliation."

Essential to have a suitable weapon

The magazine suggests potential targets where hostages could be taken including malls, movie theatres, night clubs, ice-skating rinks, restaurants and college campuses.

The article continues: "It is essential to have a suitable weapon for one's operation, i.e. a strong, sharp knife, and possibly a bat or a small club that one may use to subdue the victim by striking them over the head before slaugh­tering them."

Last year the glossy 38-page Rumiyah magazine published the image of 64-year-old Cheshire florist Stephen Leyland on his stall last year alongside the exhortation to kill pensioners in queues and "even the blood of a merry crusader citizen selling flowers to passers-by".

On 4 May Europol said that Isis is launching its own social media platform after media companies came under attack from politicians for not doing enough to stop contact between its members.

Its director, Rob Wainwright, said: "Within that op, ration it was revealed that [Isis] was now developing its very own social media platform; its own part of the internet to run its agenda."