ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

ANKARA: At least 45 Kurdish rebels were killed in Turkish air strikes against suspected militant targets in northern Iraq following the suicide car bombing in Ankara, the military said Tuesday, while clashes in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir left a police officer and three Kurdish militants dead. Turkish F-16 and F4 jets struck Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, positions across the border in Iraq on Monday, a day after the attack which killed 37 people and wounded dozens of others. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Ankara attack, which authorities say was carried out by a female bomber and a possible male accomplice. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were "almost certain" indications that the PKK carried out the attack. The attack escalated tensions with the Kurds and further complicated Turkey's place in the region as it battles a host of enemies across its borders including the Syrian government, Kurdish rebels in both Iraq and...

At least 65 civilians were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes carried out by Saudi-led coalition aircrafts that hit a crowded market in north of Sanaa. "So far, the death toll mounted to 65 civilians and 55 others injured when the Saudi-led fighter jets launched two airstrikes on Al-Khamees market in Mastaba district in Hajja province," a medical official told Xinhua. Doctors without Borders reported that they have received about 40 injured from the airstrikes in Mastaba district and they were brought to the organisation-hosted Rural Hospital in Abs district. Hajja, about 123 km northwest of the rebel-held Sanaa, is another stronghold of the rebel Shiite Houthi rebels, who also control northern provinces, while southern provinces have been retaken over the past few months by the government forces loyal to the internationally recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition started daily air bombing on the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allied forces since Mar...

By The Saker “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “In a short period of time Russia has created a small but very effective military group in Syria. The effective work of our military forces allowed the peace process to begin,” Putin said, adding that “Russian government troops and [Syria’s] patriotic forces have changed the situation in the fight with international terrorism and have ceased the initiative.” The first question which needs to be asked is whether this is correct: have the Russians achieved their objective or not? To answer this question, we need to look at what the initial Russian objectives were. I did that in my article “ Week Thirteen of the Russian Intervention i...