Promotion poster for Al-Saqri Foundation’s anthrax manual, the fourth section in the media unit’s “Easy toxin / biological warfare” series |
In early May 2022, the veteran Islamic State-aligned online media unit, the Al-Saqri Foundation for Military Sciences, published a new manual in its instructional series focusing on chemical and biological agents, which described a method for the production of anthrax spores from Bacillus anthracis bacteria. The manual provided a detailed, step-by-step description of acquiring the required materials and tools, gathering a soil sample, isolating the required bacteria, and finally, inducing sporulation and purifying the anthrax spores. Being highly lethal, and given attempted and successful past attacks, and its relatively simple production, anthrax is highly feared as a bioterrorism agent, and indeed, over the past two decades, online jihadists have listed anthrax as a favorable bioweapon, suggesting production methods and some possible attack TTPs. The Al-Saqri Foundation manual did not suggest any possible uses, but did provide an informative and clear procedure, ostensibly easy to follow even for the inexperienced. The document’s main point of interest is that it demonstrates persisting jihadi interest in the preparation of lethal chemical and biological agents, in a simple and accessible format that can appeal to a wide pool of readers.
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