IRAQ RECEIVES A BATCH OF BMP-1 FROM BULGARIA

The Iraqi military has received 10 BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles from Bulgaria, according to Iraqi media outlets. The Soviet-made IFVs will serve as yet another tool in the fight against terrorist in the war-torn country. The deal hasn’t officially been reveled as there’s no information in the Bulgarian media, nor any official statements from the Bulgarian government. However, pictures and videos of the vehicles have been posted at the Iraqi news outlets.

It’s a public secret that Bulgaria has been one of the top players on the black market for arms in the Middle East, selling all kinds of small weapons, tanks, IFVs and other equipment to both the Syrian and Iraqi governments but also to all the various types of rebel groups and terrorists. The country has had one of the biggest arms reserves left from the Cold War. Earlier this year, reports suggested that Bulgaria had delivered T-72 battle tanks to Iraq.

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Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

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Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

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