ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Until recently, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi was a relatively unknown name in the jihadi community of Syria. A 26-year-old from a small village in the district of Malacca on the southwest of the Malayan Peninsula, he arrived in Syria on 26 January 2016, officially recruited into the jihadi community through Facebook. The Islamic State seemed perfect for his ambitions, as it had no strict preconditions for new recruits — no previous battlefield experience, no theological credentials, only a determination to serve the cause and an oath of commitment to its self-proclaimed “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Malaysian recruit fit all of the above, but was placed under routine probation, common for foreigners who join the Syrian and Iraqi battlefields, where they are tested for discipline, will, courage and behavior. Restrictions were placed on Jedi from the start; he was not allowed to roam about freely. Such rules didn’t apply to battle-hardened warriors from previous frontiers...

By Danny Sjursen  The United States has already lost -- its war for the Middle East, that is. Having taken my own crack at combat soldiering in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that couldn’t be clearer to me. Unfortunately, it’s evidently still not clear in Washington. Bush’s neo-imperial triumphalism failed. Obama’s quiet shift to drones, Special Forces, and clandestine executive actions didn’t turn the tide either. For all President Trump’s bluster, boasting, and threats, rest assured that, at best, he’ll barely move the needle and, at worst… but why even go there? At this point, it’s at least reasonable to look back and ask yet again: Why the failure? Explanations abound, of course. Perhaps Americans were simply never tough enough and still need to take off the kid gloves. Maybe there just weren’t ever enough troops. (Bring back the draft!) Maybe all those hundreds of thousands of bombs and missiles just came up short. (So how about lots more of them, maybe even a nuke ?) Lead from...

Turkey has decided not to directly participate in the liberation of the Syrian city of Raqqa and offered to send formations of the Syrian opposition to storm the capital of the Islamic State terrorist group in the country. Photo: AFP The Turkish Army will not be directly involved in the liberation of Raqqa city from terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on February 19. Instead of this, Ankara offers to send loyal formations of the Syrian opposition to storm the capital of Syrian terrorists, and currently tries to agree on this issue with Washington. As experts noted, sending of Turkish tanks to Raqqa would turn into open war with Syrian Kurds. During his visit to Germany, Yildirim made it clear that the Turkish Army is not going to participate in the offensive on Raqqa, but it is ready to provide “tactical support” to troops of the Syrian opposition. According to the Turkish prime minister, Ankara wants detachments of the Free Syri...

According to the Al-Sumaria TV-channel, “Abu Abdullah”, a chief of the ISIS Security Service was killed in Mosul High-ranking terrorist named as “Abu Abdullah”, was killed in airstrikes at the Mosul airport on Tuesday, the Al-Sumaria TV-channel reported. “Abu Abdullah” was killed in the morning along with two of his aides near the main entrance to the Mosul airport. According to the sources, terrorists were attacked by an unmanned combat air vehicle (UСAV). The information about terrorist’s name (“Abu Abdullah”), his call sign or military position raises doubts. It is quite possible that the announced data is far from the truth. Another version appeared on February 20, the killed terrorist was named as “Abu Bakr al-Shishani” who was considered to be a chief of the ISIS Security Service. ‘Al-Shishani’ means a native of Chechnya (Russian North Caucasus region) or marks nationality “Chechen”. It is worth pointing out that ISIS security service and intelligence command stuff are mainl...

A program of military assistance to the Syrian opposition in the north-west of the Arab Republic, coordinated by the CIA, has been suspended. Photo: Newsmakers / David Burnett The US has suspended a program of military assistance to the Syrian opposition in the north-west of the Arab Republic, which was coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) , the Reuters news agency reported, citing sources in the opposition’s ranks. The program was frozen after an attack of extremists that occurred in January, it will be restarted after reorganization, representatives of the opposition said. A US official source told Reuters that the suspension of aid to the Syrian opposition was not associated with the change of the administration in the US and the coming of President Donald Trump to power. The source confirmed that the reason for this move was the attack of extremists. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the armed opposition and formations of mercenaries in Sy...