Indonesian security agencies have ordered the removal of an Islamic State propaganda video showing young Indonesian boys being trained for combat.

The video features up to 20 youths, aged around 10, dressed in military fatigues brandishing Kalashnikov weapons.

Analysts in Indonesia believe this is Islamic State's first attempt to display and promote South East Asian child jihadis who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the caliphate.

Until now, Indonesian authorities have been aware of dozens of adults and several teenagers who have gone to the combat zone for mujahideen, but not youths.

The video was published in the last few days, showing an Indonesian man instructing and interviewing the boys.

"Can you shoot?", the teacher asks a fresh-faced child in one scene.

"Can you disassemble and reassemble the AK-47?"

The boy replies: "I can."

The final scene of the two-minute video features one of the junior jihadis standing in front of the IS flag, raising a pistol towards the camera and exclaiming: "To the infidel governments all around the world, this is for you!", followed by the crack of a single gunshot.

Alert to the sensitivities of the video, Indonesian security agencies moved quickly to order social media sites, ISPs and popular video service hosts to remove the material.

It had been cleared from many sites within 48 hours.

A spokesman for Indonesian National Police, Senior Commissioner Rikwanto, has suggested the boys were "possibly brainwashed" and had "embraced Islamic Sharia (also) to get a big income".

"We will see who are behind this [video production and dissemination] and what messages they are trying to convey," he said.

"It could be [considered as] an incitement, at least, [and could be prosecuted] within criminal law."

The direct pitch to Islamic hardliners in Indonesia and Malaysia marks an escalation of the extremists' recruitment activities in a region with more than 250 million Muslims.

While the material might hold some appeal to those at the margins, more moderate Indonesian Muslims and the country's nationalist media have tended to interpret the video as transparently propagandist and exploitative of the children.

The Indonesian government has been considering whether to introduce tighter restrictions on the movement of its citizens to and from Iraq and Syria, but has not yet imposed any.