ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Abu Dujana al Hindi is shown at left, next to Nasser Muthanna, who now refers to himself as “Abu Muthanna al Yemeni” appeared in an ISIL Jihad recruitment video. Now, Shia organizations are recruiting fighters to defend Shia holy sites against ISIL attack. (IraqiNews.com) The conflict between Iraq’s government and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has begun to spread concerns throughout the region, particularly in India. Last week, the country was concerned over the unknown whereabouts of 40 Indian construction workers. The workers were in a territory that had been captured by the terrorist group ISIS. Now, new concerns have emerged as India’s largest Shia organization began to recruit volunteers to defend Shia holy shrines in Iraq that may soon fall into the hands of ISIS. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 Indian Shia Muslims have already signed up to fight and applied for visas to fly into Iraq. Various Indian Shia Muslim organizations are hoping that recruitment can ...

A local source in Mosul said on Sunday, that the number of foreign fighters in the ranks of the so-called ISIS has become very small and their absence seemed clearly visible. The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “The recent decision of the ISIS gangs to reduce the foreign fighters’ salaries in half, had left a significant impact, which led to the escape of a number of them from the organization.” The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The flow of foreign fighters coming from the city of Raqqa, the headquarters of ISIS in Syria, has become very little or non-existent due to reduced salaries.”

Islamic State has released a new 17-minute video featuring the Paris attackers apparently participating in gruesome murders somewhere in an undisclosed desert location before they infiltrated the EU and subsequently conducted attacks in the French capital. While the video is yet to be authenticated, the footage uploaded to Islamic State’s official Telegram messaging service account shows Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) extremists wearing camouflaged outfits, sending out chilling warnings to EU heads of state for their countries’ actions in the Middle East. The new video shows four Belgians, three French citizens and two Iraqis believed to be responsible for the attacks in Paris. The video opens with the message of what is said to be the final words of the attackers, who were mobilized to carry out terror acts in France. The graphic video features beheadings and a firing squad execution, in which the attackers take part. Bilal Hadfi, who was killed during the Paris attacks is a...

The war in Syria is an unparalleled crisis. It has gone far beyond an internal political struggle, and is marked by a complex array of forces that the U.S. Empire hopes to command: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and more.