Unidentified militiaman on guard in a Syrian town. Photo: ISIS propaganda material

“No, we swear by Allah, we have not forgotten the Balkans,” the Bosnian version of ISIS’s magazine Rumiyah warned as the terror organisation issued a new threat to the region.

In an article entitled “The Balkans – Blood for Enemies, and Honey for Friends”, the terror group makes direct threats to Serbs and Croats over their roles in the Balkan wars, as well as to Muslim ‘traitors’ to the Islamic faith.

“Soon the soldiers of the caliphate will walk through Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Tirana, Pristina, Skopje and other cities, ripping off heads and shedding the blood of infidels,” it warned.

The jihadists caution they have not forgotten that Serbs and Croats fought against Bosnian Muslims in the 1992-95 war.

“Did you think that when you returned home, your hands stained with the blood of Muslims, all that happened ended?” the terror group asked before issuing a warning that the 1990s war was the beginning of the end.

The article continues by saying that all traitors to the Islamic faith in Bosnia, Serbia’s Sandzak region, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia will be “exterminated” with “sabres and daggers”, unless they return to Islam.

“Your blood is dearer and sweeter to us than that of the Serbs and Croats,” it says.

The authors of the article also make reference to ISIS-linked attacks in Britain, France, Germany and the US; countries that it refers to as stronger than the Balkans but still defenceless.

They say that ISIS has turned these countries from boastful powers into humiliated and scared nations.

“Do not think that you are safe and ready,” they warn.

The Bosnian version of the ISIS magazine has since September last year been justifying the attacks carried out by the terror group throughout the world.

The magazine was issued in several languages, including Arabic, English, Turkish, German and French, by ISIS’s media arm Al-Hayat. Its name means ‘Rome’ and is thought to allude to the fall of the Roman Empire.

Goran Kovacevic, a professor at the Faculty of Criminology and Security Studies at the University of Sarajevo, told BIRN last November that the magazine’s aim is to appeal to poor and unemployed Bosnian Muslims.

According to official data, Bosnia is one of the main regional exporters of jihadists to the Middle East.