ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

About a year ago, a devastating explosion rocked the relatively small port city of Tianjin in China. Initial reports and civilian footage showed that there was an enormous blast followed by a huge fireball which devastated a 20,000 square meter portion of the city.  VICTIM OF A TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPON  The area is still incredibly dangerous, and there have been a series of continual explosions since. The area around the impact site has been transformed from a bustling commercial hub into an apocalyptic landscape of burned out cars, melted and twisted shipping containers and charred pavements. Preliminary reports suggest that at least eighty-five people have succumbed to injuries sustained as a result of the blast.  The official story is that the catastrophic explosion was caused by an accidental detonation at a chemical facility. However, journalists at Veterans Today believe that there might be something more sinister afoot.  These journalis...

By Alexander Mercouris Known facts about the terrorist attack in Manchester suggest this was not an attack carried out by an individual terrorist or group of terrorists but that it was ordered by ISIS's leadership. What makes ISIS’s  latest attack  – on young people happily enjoying a concert in Manchester – look particularly sinister is not just the deliberately indiscriminate nature of this attack.  Unfortunately that is the pattern of all of ISIS’s terrorist attacks. Rather it is the fact that unlike some of the other attacks carried out across Europe by individuals on behalf of ISIS, this attack looks planned, and was almost certainly ordered by ISIS’s leadership. The reasons for thinking this are as follows: (1) ISIS has  claimed responsibility  for the attack before the British authorities have released any information about the terrorists who carried it out.  That suggests that ISIS knows who the terrorists are, and that they working und...

By John Wight   The lack of a coherent anti-terrorism strategy in Washington and by extension the West, as emergency services deal with the devastating aftermath of yet another  terrorist atrocity  in Europe – this time a suicide bomb attack at a concert in Manchester, England – has been thrown into sharp relief during President Trump’s tour of the Middle East. Specifically, on what planet can Iran be credibly  accused  of funding and supporting terrorism while Saudi Arabia is considered a viable partner in the fight against terrorism? This is precisely the narrative we are being invited to embrace by President Trump in what counts as a retreat from reality into the realms of fantasy, undertaken in service not to security but commerce. Indeed those still struggling to understand why countries such as the US, UK, and France consistently seek to legitimise a Saudi regime that is underpinned by the medieval religious doctrine of Wahhabism, which is near ind...

Jamie Lucman/Facebook A group of heavily-armed ISIS-linked militants have stormed the Philippines  city of Marawi, engaging the national army in fierce clashes on the city’s streets. According to reports, at least 15 militants armed with assault rifles attacked the city. Army troops and a special police force deployed in response to the attack. The militants had reportedly blocked some roads, entered a local hospital and raised a black ISIS flag above the roof. Many buildings were reportedly set on fire. ISIS has officially claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq news agency. Photos from the site: Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image

A screenshot from the video The Iraqi government has officially confirmed a cooperation with Syria, Iran and Russia to secure the Syrian-Iraqi border. According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, there is a cooperation between the four countries on this issue. The Iraqi media also reported refering Iraqi officials that Iraq and its allies will not allow establishing of any “buffer zone” between two countries.

 J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson While Russia’s next State Armaments Program (GPV) will be officially revealed only in early July, its general outline is already known thanks to a number of official and unofficial announcements on the future direction of the Russian Armed Forces.  GPV’s priorities are a reflection of the perceived threat array facing the Russian Federation, and this GPV is clearly prioritizing the Ground Forces, which will sustain a rapid pace of modernization in spite of the recent economic crisis that has not yet been fully overcome. The political instability of the European Union, the rise of nationalists in Ukraine, the Baltics, and NATO’s overt hostility toward Russia, and the erratic foreign policy pursued by the Trump Administration compelled to take heed of the globalist faction of the US elite, all point to the need to bolster Russia’s ability to fight a large-scale land war in the foreseeable future. The other priority evident in the available...