ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

© Patrik Stollarz / AFP German police will deploy 1,500 officers to the streets of Cologne on New Year’s Eve and implement a number of increased security plans, aiming to prevent a repeat of the wave of sexual assaults that were reported on the holiday last year. In addition to federal police officers and city security officials, trained specialists will be available to help women and girls in case of harassment, intimidation, assault, or rape, Deutsche Welle reported. Officers will wear reflective vests to make themselves highly visible, police chief Jürgen Mathies said during a presentation of the city's New Year's Eve security plan on Monday. The city will also limit access to the immediate area around the city's cathedral, the site of many of last year's alleged assaults, which on that day were reported in their hundreds. The church, the adjacent square, and nearby buildings will be illuminated in bright colors. Bags will be searched, and fireworks will be strict...

Click to see the full-size map The Syrian army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) have repelled the ISIS attack on the strategic Tyas Airbase west of the ancient city of Palmyra . Now, the Tyas Airbase is a key defence locality of the Syrian army that it will use to repell ISIS attempts to develop the advance. In turn, the goal of Syrian government forces is to regroup, to deploy reinforcements and to prepare an operation to retake the ancient city from the terrorist group. Syrian troops are repelling the ISIS attack on the Tyas Airbase: Syrian troops near the Tyas Airbase:

ISIS terrorists seized the ancient city of Palmyra from Syrian government forces. The terrorist group also took control of Biyarat, Dawah and Hayyan oil facility west of Palmyra after a series of clashes with the Syrian army and the National Defense Forces (NDF). Terrorists also attacked the Qadri farms and shelled government forces in the outskirts of the Tayfor Airbase. Heavy clashes were also at the Tiyas village near the Tayfor Airbase, but the Syrian army repelled ISIS attacks there. ISIS was able to achieve all these gains despite massive airstrikes by the Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces. Only Russian warplanes and helicopters have delivered over 150 airstrikes on ISIS terrorists near Palmyra since Saturday. On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that eleven battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, 31 cars with heavy machineguns, and over 300 militants were destroyed. Government forces are now regrouping and deploying reinforcements in the area w...