Al Qaeda manual offers tips to potential Western recruits

This 2008 image shows Samir Khan outside his parents' Charlotte, N.C., home. (FoxNews.com)

SANAA, Yemen – Al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has released an English-language training guide for would-be Western recruits, telling them to imagine virgins waiting for them in paradise when they feel afraid.

Published on the internet and written by US-raised Al Qaeda propagandist Samir Khan, the manual for aspiring jihadists outlines what conditions and hardships they can expect when they travel to terror training camps in Yemen and elsewhere, ABC News reported Monday.

It suggests potential recruits get a taste for what life is like at the camps by going for a week without any electronic equipment, talking above a low voice or leaving their apartment.

After describing how tough and basic the situation at the training camps is, the guide even recommends sign-ups consider staying home and "attacking America in its own backyard."

"The effect is much greater, it always embarrasses the enemy, and these types of individual decision-making attacks are nearly impossible for them to contain," it says.

And in an attempt to quell the fears of trainee jihadists when under "aerial bombardment" from aircraft, Khan writes, "If you feel terrified, close your eyes and imagine yourself inside paradise, entering its magnificent gates.

"Imagine glancing at your beautiful palace. Think of your hoor [virgins] that are awaiting you," The (London) Daily Telegraph reported.

The manual, which also praises cleanliness, says secrecy is one of the pillars of modern day jihad, advising recruits not to reveal their place of birth to other jihadists and to refrain from asking them too many questions.

Khan was the founder and editor of the jihadist magazine "Inspire" and was killed by US Hellfire missiles during a drone attack in September 2011, along with the US-born radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki.