ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On Friday Paris prosecutor François Molins announced the name of the man who had fatally shot a police officer on the Champs-Élysées Thursday night before being shot dead as he tried to flee the scene. Karim Cheurfi, the prosecutor said, was a convicted criminal who had spoken about wanting to kill police officers. On the ground by his body, police said they found a handwritten note defending the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). The timing of the attack seemed calculated. Thursday marked the last day of campaigning for France’s presidential election. The first round of voting takes place Sunday with the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen likely to make it to the second, runoff round. The polls have consistently indicated that she will then lose this round—which will take place on May 7— to the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron . Cheurfi’s attack could change that. A last-minute poll taken after the attack showed a slight increase in support for Le Pen, though she was still jus...

North Korea has bluntly warned Australia of a possible nuclear strike if Canberra persists in "blindly and zealously toeing the US line". North Korea's state new agency (KCNA) on Saturday quoted a foreign ministry spokesman castigating Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop after she "spouted a string of rubbish" against the the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK). "If Australia persists in following the US moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK," the report said. "The Australian foreign minister had better think twice about the consequences to be entailed by her reckless tongue-lashing before flattering the US." US Vice-President Mike Pence is in Australia and the threat of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles programs were high on the agenda in talks wit...

ISIS elements during the implementation of an execution operation . Archival photo. Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants killed 42 civilians in Mosul as they refused to join the group, a parliamentary source from Nineveh province said. “The militants in Mosul are looking for women to get them involved in the so-called jihadul Nikah [sexual jihad],” the source said. “IS kills whoever refuses to join.” “IS executed 42 men who refused to join the group in Mosul,” the source added. Earlier on Saturday, IS was reported to have killed 15 civilians in western Mosul for refusing to allow the group’s snipers to position or erect rocket launchers above their residences. IS executed hundreds of civilians and security members since it took over large areas in Iraq to proclaim a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate” in 2014. IS has been losing ground and personnel since Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S-led coalition and paramilitary troops, launched an offen...

By Paul Atwood We are fighting in Korea so we won’t have to fight in Wichita, or in Chicago, or in New Orleans, or in San Francisco Bay. —  President Harry S Truman, 1952  Why has this tiny nation of 24 million people invested so much of its limited resources in acquiring nuclear weapons? North Korea is universally condemned as a bizarre and failed state, its nuclear posture denounced as irrational. Yet North Korea’s stance cannot be separated out from its turbulent history during the 20 th  Century, especially its four decade long occupation by Japan, the forced division of the Korean peninsula after World War II, and, of course, the subsequent utterly devastating war with the United States from 1950-1953 that ended in an armistice in which a technical state of war still exists. Korea is an ancient nation and culture, achieving national unity in 608 CE, and despite its near envelopment by gigantic China it has retained its own unique language and traditions thr...

Houthi forces and the Yemeni Republican Guard [loyal to former president Abdullah Saleh] have conducted a series of attacks on positions of pro-Saudi forces [supporting figutive president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi] in the Midi desert in the Jizan area of Yemen. Houthi snipers reportedly killed two members of pro-Hadi forces. Houthi artillery units shelled Saudi forces positions in the desert of Midi wounding a number of Saudi soldiers. Separately, the Houthi targeted Saudi positions in Al-Aysh and Al-Alyb in Jizan. Houthis also used rockets to shell a gathering of Saudi soldiers in Al-Sudais in Jizan. The Houthis’ media wing has published a video [ link ] of an ambush carried out by Houthi fighters against a group of pro-Hadi and Saudi soldiers in the Habs mountain in Jizan. Over 7 Saudi soldiers were wounded or killed after being hit by IEDs planted by the Houthis. The Saudi Air Force continues its bombing campaign targeting military targets and civilian ar...

Lebanese Army soldiers on their military vehicles take part in a military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Lebanon’s independence, in downtown Beirut November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON – Tags: ANNIVERSARY POLITICS MILITARY) On April 22, the Lebanese Army carried out a special operation in the Wadi al-Hosn area in Arsal where Lebanese commandos stormed the home of “Wa’el Deeb al-Falaiti” and arrested him and his brother “Hussein Deeb al-Fleiti.” A group of wanted terrorists who were working on supplying terrorist groups in Lebanon and Syria with arms and money was detained. Lebanese commandos have also killed “Al-Halabi,” nicknamed “Al-Malys” during the operation. Al-Halabi was a Syrian national from the town of Qara in Western Qalamoun. He was an ISIS commander and was directly responsible for the abduction and execution of kidnapped soldiers in Lebanon in 2014. A statement by the Lebanese Ministry of Defense According to an of...