Washington: A magazine published by Yemen's Al Qaida is carrying an article offering chilling suggestions to would-be militants on how to kill Americans.
"A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C. at lunch, might end up knocking out a few government employees," writes one of the authors in the second edition of the group's English-language magazine, according to the private SITE Intelligence Group.
The SITE group says it studies, tracks and analyses the global jihadist network, as well as monitoring the financing of terrorist groups around the world.
The article in the 74-page October issue of Inspire, launched last July, came just in time for the 10th anniversary of the USS Cole bombing. It shows that the group, "is not under significant pressure," says Brookings Institution terror expert Bruce Riedel.
The magazine's content reveals the group's evolving strategy of rejecting spectacular attacks in favour of one-man operations, using everyday objects.
The organisation is "increasingly agile, lethal and opportunistic," according to Yemeni scholar Christopher Boucek from the Carnegie Endowment.
The first edition included an article called "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom".
This new edition includes, "The Ultimate Mowing Machine", which describes how to use a pickup truck "as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah. It says to achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control . . . to strike as many people as possible in your first run".
The magazine includes two articles by renegade US cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, who is on a US government kill-or-capture list for his alleged roles in the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing, and for inspiring the shooting of 13 troops. Army Major Nidal Hassan has been charged with the killings.
There's also an article by a so-called American Al Qaida member, Adam Gadahn. And another American, Samir Khan, describes how he went from online jihadist in North Carolina to full-time terrorist in Yemen. The article is entitled, ‘I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America’.
The series of articles, combined with a number of recent releases on an Al Qaida version of YouTube, are "broadening their potential audience," said Boucek. "They are brilliant at amplifying their message”.
In the introduction to the latest magazine, the editors boast of "recent US assessments" that declare Al Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula "one of the most dangerous branches of Al Qaida." It concludes, "You haven't seen anything yet".
