ISIS fighters parade captured tanks
ISIS fighters parade captured tanksReuters

Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) is working on biological weapons, according to data reportedly recovered from a IS-linked laptop, upping the ante in the global terror group's pledge to spread Islamism around the world by force.

Moderate rebels in Syria seized the generic-looking Dell laptop in a raid last year on an IS hideout in Idlib, a rebel leader known only as Abu Ali told Foreign Policy magazine's website Friday, from an IS terrorist with Tunisian origins. 

Data recovered from thousands of secret filed in French, English, and Arabic not only included typical "terror instructions" on such norms as stealing cars, bomb-making, and disguise - but also how to infect humans with the bubonic plague from animal cultures. 

The nineteen-page Arabic document explained the infection process in detail, it said, including weaponization. 

"The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge," the document states. "When the microbe is injected in small mice, the symptoms of the disease should start to appear within 24 hours."

The files also included an Islamic religious ruling, or fatwa, permitting biological warfare.

"If Muslims cannot defeat the kafir [unbelievers] in a different way, it is permissible to use weapons of mass destruction," states the fatwa by Saudi jihadi cleric Nasir al-Fahd, who is currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. "Even if it kills all of them and wipes them and their descendants off the face of the Earth."

Experts say the find proves not that IS already has biological weapons, but is at least actively seeking them to expand their jihadist campaign in the Middle East and around the globe - and become an unprecedented threat if they do.

“If they obtain biological or chemical weapons, they will use them," Princeton University Jurisprudence professor Robert George stated to the Glenn Beck show earlier this week. "There’s no question. There’s nothing that’s stopping them from using those weapons." 

IS recently declared a Caliphate in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq, after taking large swathes of land in both places over the past several months and committing genocide against hundreds - if not thousands - of Shi'ite Muslims and ethnic minorities, including  Bedouin and ethnic Yazidi.

Concerns over its war on the West have grown so strong that Britain raised its terror alert level to high on Friday, while the US waffled over unclear plans to expand airstrikes against the groups. 

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)