The black flag of Islamic militant group ISIS is shown flying above St. Peter's Square on the cover of the group's magazine Dabiq, which called in its latest issue for a war against the Catholic Church.
With the headline The Failed Crusade, the photo-shopped cover of Dabiq caps new threats against Rome and the Vatican as well as forces led by the United States in a bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria against ISIS militants.
It threatens to "conquer" Rome and "break your crosses," referring to the symbol of Christianity.
The group has previously suggested that the fight is about religion and western forces are attacking the Islamic faith rather than the militants - a modern version of the medieval Crusades that pitted the Roman Catholic Christians of the day against Islam. The article in Dabiq - named for a town in northern Syria - also urged faithful Muslims to attack and kill "every Crusader possible" and added that "it is lawful to kidnap the women of the infidels and use them as sex slaves".
Last month, security officials said that they had stepped up security at the Vatican following threats by ISIS, which wants to establish an Islamic Caliphate. This marked the fourth issue of Dabiq, which is published in English.
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