The headline is brutally uncompromising. The letters, in red over an image of French firefighters treating a casualty, spell two words: “Just Horror”.
On the next page is a phrase attributed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian street thug turned militant who a decade ago in Iraq founded the group that was eventually to evolve into Islamic State. “The spark has been lit … and its heat will continue to intensify … until it burns the crusader armies in Dabiq,” it reads.
Dabiq is a village in northern Syria, currently under Isis control, where Islamic apocalyptic prophesies site the final battle between good and evil, belief and unbelief, the west and Islam. It is also the name of the Isis magazine, the 12th edition of which was published three days ago.
A week after the killings in Paris, analysts, officials and even rival militants are struggling to grasp the changed landscape of international militancy.
“What Isis have done is up the attack portfolio to a new level … We are in the middle of a new wave of international terrorism after seeing it decline for a few years,” said Seth Jones, an analyst at the Rand Corporation, Washington.
Al-Murabitoun, an al-Qaida-linked group responsible for a number of deadly operations in north Africa, has claimed responsibility for a terror attack in Mali on Friday.
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