ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Deir Ezzor, SANA – A mass grave was uncovered in Mrat town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor province containing tens of bodies of people who were killed by ISIS terrorists. The grave, which was found by the town’s locals, consists of a trench in the “7th kilometers” area near Mrat town. Local sources told SANA reporter that the remains of more than 100 people shot dead, including children, were buried in the mass grave. A similar grave was found by the locals of al-Kishkiyeh town in the eastern Deir Ezzor in December 2014 that contained the remains of tens of people from al-Shei’tat tribe who were shot dead by ISIS terrorists. M. al-Frieh/H. Said

Provinces, SANA – An increasing number of terrorists have been killed in precise and pinpoint operations carried out by the army units and the air force in various areas across the country. Lattakia Army units, in cooperation with the popular defense groups, restored security and stability to the villages of Barrouma, Mazyan and Rweiset Hmeiroush in the northern countryside of Lattakia province, a military source announced on Sunday. Meanwhile, units of the army also restored security and stability to villages of Majdal Kikhia, Sheikh Mustafa, Sheikh Ayoub and Ayn al-Ghazal in addition to the strategic points 679, 466 and 448 in Lattakia northern countryside. The source described the operations carried out in those areas as “intensive, precise and swift” in which special tactics for mountainous and wooded areas were used. Engineering units dismantled a number of explosive devices and mines which the terrorists had earlier planted among houses and at the villages’ entrances, the source

By Andrew KORYBKO (USA) Whether it’s Al Shabaab, Burundi, or Zanzibar, a handful of regional issues are lining up to undermine East Africa’s stability and offset the most ambitious series of integrational projects in the continent’s history. The five-nation East African Community (EAC) of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania plans to transition into a formal federation sometime in the near future, catapulting its significance from a regional to a global actor. The integrational bloc is betting that its East African Railway Master Plan , partially financed and constructed by China, will not only do wonders for its own economic cohesiveness, but will stimulate broader sub-Saharan cooperation. The vision is that this strategic blueprint will link the prospective East African Federation (EAF) together with Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the ultimate goal being to bridge Africa’s transoceanic divide by connecting to the Atlantic Ocean v

By Moon Of Alabama  This is a look at the larger picture of forces developing around Syria. Several foreign armies are aggregating at the Syrian borders with the intent to invade Syria and to occupy its eastern part. But before we dive into that, a short look at the curious situation developing in the north-west. Near Azaz the U.S. ally Turkey is currently shelling ( video ) the U.S. ally YPG which is fighting the CIA supported FSA. The Syrian-Kurdish YPG troops were heavily supported by the U.S. in their fight against the Islamic State in north-eastern Syria. Under U.S. tutelage they united with Arab anti-IS fighters under the label Syrian Democratic Forces. In north-west Syria the SDF has used the recent success of the Syrian army against Jihadis in the area to take northern parts of the Azaz corridor which once connected Aleppo to Turkey. That corridor is held by a mixture of al-Qaeda Jihadist from Jabhat al-Nusra, "Turkmen" Islamists from various Turk speaking countries