An Islamic State militant uses a loud-hailer to announce to residents of Taqba city that Tabqa air base has fallen to Islamic State militants, in nearby Raqqa city August 24, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER
IN PHOTO: An Islamic State militant uses a loud-hailer to announce to residents of Taqba city that Tabqa air base has fallen to Islamic State militants, in nearby Raqqa city August 24, 2014. REUTERS/STRINGER

The terrorist group ISIS has posted a new photo online showing a tiny baby lying on an ISIS flag with guns and grenades surrounding the newborn.

The baby, believed to be less than six months old, is positioned next to a Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol and hand grenades.

Its photo was posted on Twitter beneath the hashtag #IS. This baby is believed to be youngest child yet used by the militant group as part of its social media campaign.

ISIS posts chilling picture of "Jihadi Baby" http://t.co/be03XNRVQ8 pic.twitter.com/6A3ZthanRB

— Saqib Masood (@SaqibMasoodPK) Sept 4, 2014

The picture raises fears that the ISIS jihadists are training children at such a young age to turn them into militants. The ISIS actually recruits and grooms young children to participate in jihad. They lure them with toys and gadgets, and then brainwash their young minds before sending them off to training camps when they reach their teens.

Just in August, terrorist Khaled Sharrouf posted an image on Twitter bragging of his son holding the severed head of a Syrian soldier. Believed to be at least 7-years old, the terrorist father even captioned the photo "That's my boy!"

Meantime, the ISIS group's reach and influence is growing each passing day, according to Matthew Olsen, a senior US counter-terrorism official.

In fact ISIS now holds an area as big as Britain, he said. Moreover, it earns £600,000 daily from selling oil and ransoming hostages.

Its fighting force is 10,000-strong, Olsen added.

The group's net worth, before taking the city of Mosul, $875 million (£515 million). After robbing banks and selling looted military supplies, their assets gained $1.5 billion.

To date, its net worth is reportedly over £2 billion, with its money made through the network of oil refineries across northern Iraq and Syria.

With crude sold by the barrel on the black market between $25 and $65 (£15 and £40), Luay al-Khateeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Centre in Qatar and director of the Iraq Energy Institute, believed ISIS is earning at least $2 million (£1.2 million) daily.

"From Syria they could be making double or even triple that," he told BuzzFeed.