Photo showing baby surrounded by guns and grenades while wrapped in the black flag of IS
Photo showing baby surrounded by guns and grenades while wrapped in the black flag of IS Twitter

Islamic State fanatics posted a photo of a tiny baby swathed in the black flag of IS and surrounded by machine guns and grenades on Twitter.

The image of the Isis baby was swiftly condemned for using the child, who looks to be just a few weeks old, as a propaganda tool.

It is understood the image was posted from inside Syria, large tracts of which are currently controlled by the fundamentalist killers of IS - formerly known as Isis.

The hashtag #IS accompanied the photo in a naked attempt to spread it across the social media website.

This latest slice of Islamist propaganda appeared as a report revealed more than 30,000 Twitter accounts supporting IS were set up in the wake of the beheading of US journalist James Foley.

Social media analysts found one in 10 references to the gruesome beheading made on Twitter were positive.

One teenager in western Europe, who regularly tweets in support of IS killers, explained: "The reason I started tweeting was to support the mujahedeen by activism."