ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

A technology is being tested at a secret location in Norway that can make a car’s engine cut out using high-intensity jammers. Better still, it can also take out drones, jet skis, and any other vehicle used to deliver bombs. And it has also positively tested disrupting remote control-activated bombs – even chemical and biological ones. A video posted by NATO Channel shows the device being put through its paces using fast cars, briefcase bombs and drones as it prepares to be unveiled. An individual is show in the video playing a suicide bomber, and approaches the target, which is a big black jeep and just coming up, and by losing the power, the lights gone off and the car is dead. Dr Ernst Krogager heads up an international team developing a new device which stops suspected suicide bombers’ vehicles. The team is now testing their new technology at a secret location in Norway. The NATO-funded project has developed a high-intensity electromagnetic beam which makes engines cut out. “The ig...

Officials in the ministry of finance of Afghanistan have said around 328.5 million AFS ($5.7 million) have been stolen from the bank accounts of the ministry. A spokesman for the finance ministry of Afghanistan, Abdul Qadir Jilani said two finance ministry employees have been arrested in this regard and have been introduced to attorney general office for further investigation. Mr. Jilani further added that the finance ministry is suspicious that the two employees were involved behind the robbery. According to reports, the around 61 million of the stolen cash were withdrawn using 38 forged cheques by an employee of the finance ministry. This comes as a female employee of a private bank – Azizi Bank transferred USD 1.1mn to relative’s bank account outside Afghanistan and managed to flee the country. The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) released an online wanted post of Shokofa Salehi, however there are still nor reports regarding her whereabouts. The alleged theft by...

At least 14 Taliban militants were killed and 53 others were detained during joint military operations by Afghan and coalition security forces. The interior ministry of Afghanistan on Tuesday announced that the militants were killed or detained during operations across the country in the past 24 hours. The statement further added that the operations were conducted in Helmand, Ghor, Farah, Paktia, Ghazni, Kandahar, Kunduz and Nuristan provinces of Afghanistan. Interior ministry in it’s statement also added that the operations were conducted by Afghan police in coordination with the Afghan army, Afghan intelligence and coalition security forces. At least one Taliban militant was also injured during the operations, the interior ministry said in its statement adding that Afghan security forces seized some weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations. Afghan police forces also seized three improvised explosive device (IED) during separate operations in Kunduz and Zabul provinces...

AMMAN/IRBID — Fifty Syrian refugees trapped along the Jordanian-Syrian border by ongoing shelling died of starvation and malnutrition on Monday and Tuesday, activists and border region residents said. The deaths were reported in the Syrian border villages of Daal, Sheikh Maskin and Al Tufs as regime forces continued an ongoing aerial bombing campaign that has prevented food supplies from reaching the under-siege towns. The vast majority of the deceased were some of the estimated 50,000 displaced Syrians who have fled various cities across the country and have been prevented by rising violence from crossing into Jordan, activists claim. “We are starting to see children and even adults dying from simple health conditions such as dehydration and diarrhoea,” said Ahmad Al Jayousi, a volunteer nurse at a makeshift field hospital in Al Tufs, where 20 patients have reportedly died of malnutrition-related complications this week. The reported deaths raises to 250 the total number of civilians ...

The United States' inland waterways system -- more than 19,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) of navigable routes maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers overlaid with expansive farmlands -- is one of the United States' inherent geographic benefits and has contributed to the nation's economic success . Ongoing use of the waterway system requires the maintenance of infrastructure to meet usage demand, including dredging of ports and rivers, and the operation and maintenance of dams, levees and locks. The Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the Illinois waterways, the busiest avenues for commercial traffic on inland waterways, all have expansive lock systems. The locks make navigating a river easier, sequestering vessels before raising or lowering the water level in a chamber in order to compensate for changes in the river's level. Most of these locks were constructed in the early 20th century, with an expected lifetime of 50 years. Seventy or 80 years later, many of...

Summary The M23 rebel group ended its rebellion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern province of North Kivu on Nov. 4. Leaders of the rebel group declared an end to the fighting after Congolese forces, backed by elements of a U.N. intervention brigade, assaulted the last remaining M23 positions along the Ugandan border. Key rebel leaders, including military chief Sultani Makenga, reportedly fled across the border into Uganda or Rwanda while the remaining fighters in the Congo surrendered. By ending the rebellion through military means rather than a negotiated solution , Kinshasa will now be able to dictate the terms of demobilizing fighters and dismantling the rebel group. Analysis M23 was the latest incarnation of perennial uprisings by Congolese ethnic Tutsis in the Kivu provinces. In the initial stages of the conflict, insufficient Congolese military capability with little broader military support heavily constrained Kinshasa's ability to find a solution to...

Summary With its economic and security interests in the Arctic growing, Russia is increasingly looking to its military to enforce its claims in the region. Russian state media announced Oct. 29 that Russian airborne assault forces and military transport aviation units had conducted an exercise in the Arctic. The exercise came shortly after Russian special operations forces completed their first training sessions in Arctic warfare earlier in the month. The increased pace of Arctic military exercises, particularly centered on the Russian Kola Peninsula, are part of the announced Russian goal of deploying by 2020 a combined arms force, including military, border and coast guard units, to protect its rising political and economic interests in the Arctic. Analysis The Russian military, particularly the navy, is already quite capable in the Arctic. Its largest and most capable fleet is the Northern Fleet, whose headquarters is at Severomorsk. Moscow plans to reinforce its military in the ...