Al-Qaeda has published the third menacing edition of its online magazine al Battar Camp, offering counsel to would-be terrorists on everything from physical fitness to weapons training.
'A group of right-thinking youth have gathered together to prepare this issue,' say authors who claim to be al-Qaeda's military committee in the Arabian peninsula.
'This is the time for jihad and preparation. In the time of the Mongol invasion, it didn't help the residents of Baghdad that most of them were clerics and educators.'
Diplomats and counter-terrorism experts say the online magazine is the latest evidence that al-Qaeda is using the anonymity and global reach of the internet both to reach new recruits and send messages to sleeper cells.
'Just as the fax machine served a critical role in the dissemination of early pro-bin Laden propaganda in the Saudi kingdom during the early 1990s, the internet has become a primary means of communication for al-Qaeda,' said Evan Kohlmann, a senior terrorism analyst at the Investigative Project, a Washington-based counter-terrorism think-tank.
One article in the Arabic-language manual, which recommends physical fitness and gives advice on training schedules and exercise, was written by Sheikh Yousef al-Ayyiri, a former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden and an al-Qaeda chief in Saudi Arabia who was killed last year in a clash with Saudi security forces.