Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The Islamic State group has made a fresh pitch to followers to carry out spontaneous "lone wolf" attacks against Australians and citizens of other "crusader nations".

In the latest edition of its flagship magazine, Dabiq, the militant group urges supporters to get out of their houses and attack without hesitation "infidels" from countries supporting the military campaign in Iraq.

Most significantly, it tells would-be jihadists to keep their plots small and their strategies simple, involving as few people as possible.

"At this point of the crusade against the Islamic State, it is very important that attacks take place in every country that has entered into the alliance against the Islamic State, especially the US, UK, France, Australia and Germany," it states.

"The citizens of crusader nations should be targeted wherever they can be found."

The latest call-to-arms – which follows a similar but more general call three weeks ago by the group's spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani - underscores the extent to which Islamic State is using a scattergun approach to whip supporters into action, rather than relying on complex and large-scale plots.

Such a strategy fits closely with what Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin recently called "a police officer's worst nightmare" in which low-tech plots could spring up with very little warning.

The latest urging, in the fourth edition of Dabiq magazine – one of the Islamic State's main propaganda vehicles – stresses that attackers should not over-think and over-plan, risking "analysis paralysis".

It says a jihadi should not "abandon every operation only because his  … 'perfectionism' pushes him towards an operation that supposedly can never fail – one that only exists theoretically on paper".

Rather he "should be pleased to meet his Lord even if with just one dead kafir's (infidel's) name written in his scroll of deeds …"

It continues: "Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader and kill him … Secrecy should be followed when planning and executing any attack. The smaller the numbers of those involved and the less the discussion beforehand, the more likely it will be carried out without problems.

"One should not complicate the attacks by involving other parties, purchasing complex materials, or communicating with weak-hearted individuals."

Andrew Zammit, a researcher with Monash University's Terrorism Research Centre, said that unlike during the bin Laden-era of terrorism, jihadists were increasingly encouraged by high-level leaders to act on their own - an approach that Islamic State, also known as ISIL, was embracing.

"Bin Laden didn't want footsoldiers attacking at their own initiative, using whatever methods they liked," he said.

"Documents captured in the Abbottabad compound found that he looked down on the do-it-yourself attacks promoted by (al-Qaeda's) Inspire magazine, for example.

"ISIL's leadership has been much more willing to have their sympathisers carry out unconventional and unsophisticated attacks, which could indicate that their external operations capability is quite limited."

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the Islamic State strategy shown in the magazine was consistent with Australian authorities' concerns about lone wolf jihadists.

"Lone actor operatives, acting on encouragement from the deadly IS cult, reflects the intelligence our law enforcement agencies have already received – that radicalised individuals pose a small but significant threat in Australia," he said.

He said among the government's $630 million counter-terrorism package was $13.4 million for the Australian Federal Police to work with Muslim communities to "identify and intercept" individuals at risk.

Dabiq is named after a town in northern Syria where, according to one reading of ancient Islamic texts, a final battle is to take place between Muslims and "Romans" – which Islamic State today interprets as Christians or Westerners.