If you can't beat them, scare them.
This appears to be the new tactic of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group as it released a new list of 1,700 American individuals, including churchgoers and Jewish worshippers, branding them as "crusaders" and kill targets for its "lone-wolf" supporters, Newsweek reports.
The list was discovered by jihadi monitoring service SITE Intelligence and was published and circulated on July 3 by ISIS sympathisers in online forums.
The discovery caused such a scare that it forced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to give security briefings to religious leaders.
Among those rattled by the new ISIS hit list were members of the American Jewish community. The Secure Community Network (SCN), the community's security wing, quickly hosted a conference call after finding out that among those marked for death by ISIS were some 200 Jewish community leaders and Homeland Security officials.
"The lists appear to be directed toward 'lone wolf' ISIL supporters who may be inspired to carry out attacks," SCN said in a statement, using another acronym for ISIS.
The group noted though that so far "there have been no reported incidents to date in which an ISIL-inspired individual has carried out an attack on any individual appearing on these lists."
Marking certain individuals for death is nothing new for ISIS. In recent months, it released a series of hit list of American individuals apparently intended to sow fear among the U.S. population. In May, ISIS's cyber-wing dumped the details of 3,000 New Yorkers, forcing the state police and FBI to warn all residents included in the list.
The terrorist group then released the names of 800 members of the Arkansas Library Association, whose personal files ISIS hackers were able to breach.
Together with the hit-list releases, ISIS also publishes orders directing "lone wolf" supporters to target identified individuals, categorising them as "crusaders."
While ISIS hackers had little trouble in obtaining the addresses, phone numbers and names of individuals whose personal files are listed in public bodies, they have shown that they also have the capability to infiltrate supposedly highly secured targets such as the files of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the CIA John Brennan and even presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as other military, governmental and diplomatic officials, according to Newsweek. ISIS has published and circulated the data it obtained from these personalities.
