PORTLAND — An Iraqi journalist living in Portland said Tuesday that Mainers should be aware of the threat posed by the radical terrorist group Islamic State, which has established a state-like caliphate that stretches across Syria and Iraq.

Ali Al Mshakheel delivered a lunchtime talk hosted by the World Affairs Council of Maine and nonprofit Council on International Educational Exchange on Tuesday, a day after leaders of the Islamic State urged its followers to attack U.S. citizens and U.S. allies wherever they are on the globe.

“They are giving children manuals on how to behead people. They’re 11 or 12 (years old),” he said. “They may not come to Maine, but they can get to the U.S.”

The talk also took place on the same day news broke of air- and missile strikes on a range of Islamic State targets in Syria, the first such attacks after President Barack Obama’s declaration the U.S. and a coalition of supporters would cross into the country to strike back against perceived terrorist acts.

The Islamic State — also known by acronyms ISIS and ISIL — grabbed attention around the world in recent months after releasing a series of videos depicting the beheadings of Western nationals, including two American journalists.

Al Mshakheel moved from Iraq to Maine with his wife and children in March, after a distinguished career as a journalist in his home country, where he worked at times for National Public Radio, ABC News and The Times of London.

He told a Portland audience Tuesday that Islamic State hatched as part of a rebellion against the brutal Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and was further fueled by Sunnis disenfranchised by former Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq.

“They are a well-funded and advanced military force with tens of thousands of members,” Al Mshakheel said.

He said the Islamic State makes $3 million per day smuggling oil and another $1 million every month in mafia-like “protection” charges for businesses and families in their territories, revenues come on top of the $420 million the group stole from Iraqi banks in their travels.

Al Mshakheel said ISIS can pay down-and-out Iraqis more than the Iraqi army can and noted that many Islamic State leaders come from the Sunni-led Baathist party of Saddam Hussein, who was removed from the Iraqi presidency by U.S. forces in 2003.

“It’s not religious in the sense of religion,” he said. “It’s political religion. They are using religion to achieve their political goals.”

Al Mshakheel said the threats by Islamic State leaders against U.S. citizens represent an appeal designed to convince disenfranchised Americans to launch individual jihadi attacks against their neighbors in the name of Islamic State.

“(The Islamic State) is asking them to do whatever they can — throw stones, hit-and-run (car crashes),” the journalist said. “I’m not saying this to make people afraid but to make people aware.

“These are people who failed in America, they failed in Europe, and ISIS is offering them salvation,” he added. “It’s their chance at revenge.”

Al Mshakheel said he doubts the larger Islamic State will try to organize a significant act of terrorism in Maine, because the rural state doesn’t offer the mass media attention that New York City or Washington, D.C., would. But he said the group definitely will push to make a statement on U.S. soil “if we don’t stop them now, if we don’t stop their funding, if we don’t stop them from spreading.”

“We need to do this now,” he said. “The bigger they become, the harder they’ll be to control or to destroy. … The airstrikes will eliminate their leaders. They will eliminate their transportation. It will make people afraid to join ISIS.”