On March 15, a U.S. Air Force F-16 jet flew a mission over the Syrian city of Raqqa, which ISIS has claimed as the capital of its so-called Islamic caliphate.

But the fighter jet wasn’t dropping bombs on ISIS stronghold. Instead, it was dropping tens of thousands of propaganda leaflets aimed at discouraging people from joining the militant group.

The leaflets depict quite a grisly scene: a number of young recruits lining up to join ISIS only to be thrown into a meat grinder once they reach the front of the queue.

The leaflets were created by MISO, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit.

MISO — which stands for “Military Information Support Operations” — helps the U.S. achieve its military objectives by influencing the thinking of people on the ground in combat zones. The gruesome cartoon in the leaflets is just one example of how they do that.

According to Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren,

“The message of this leaflet is that if you allow yourself to be recruited by Daesh (ISIS), you will find yourself in a meat grinder… It’s not beneficial to your health.”

The Pentagon has a long history of using propaganda campaigns, and has dropped leaflets in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya in recent years.

However, Warren says that as far as he knows, this is the first time such tactics have been used in the U.S. operation against ISIS, which started last September.

Read the original story from Al-Arabiya. Read more about the perils of life in the city of Raqqa from CNN.