ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Charles Arthur After London Bridge the prime minister has wheeled out the usual scapegoat, and demanded controls on cyberspace – but that would open a Pandora’s box W e can feel pretty certain that the  London  Bridge attackers did the following things: owned smartphones; and used Google, YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. That isn’t because owning those things and using those services marks you out as a terrorist: it’s because it marks you out as someone living in the west in the 21st century. The problem, as those companies (actually only two: Google owns YouTube, and Facebook owns WhatsApp) are discovering, is that politicians aren’t too picky about the distinction. Speaking outside 10 Downing St this morning, Theresa May was much more aggressive in her tone than previously. The London Bridge attack had its roots in Islamic extremism, she observed: “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big compan...

Six fighters of the Al-Sham Corps were killed after their vehicle was targeted with an IED on the Damascus-Aleppo highway near the village of Khan al-Sabil in the Idlib countryside. The fighters were returning from a western Aleppo front and were members of the Al-Fatiheen Regiment of the Al-Sham Corps – one of the biggest Turkey-backed groups. Click to see the full-size image In the northern Idlib countryside, one of the Sharia’a judges of Hayat Taahrir Al-Sham (HTS), Abu Torab Mohsen (Laili Hasan Al-Laili), was assassinated in norther Idlib country side.A unknown militiamen shot him in еру Selqeen market. Click to see the full-size image Laili Hasan is from Dir Ezzor. He is one of the first members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Deir Ezzor, before defecting and joining the al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda branch in Syria. Now, the al-Nusra Front is known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The assassinations are believed to be linked mainly to the ongoing tensions between ...

Click to see the full-size image The last ISIS stronghold in the province of Aleppo, the town of Maskanah, felt into hands of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) last night. The liberation of Maskanah is an important victory for the Syrian military. Now, government forces, led by the SAA Tiger Forces, will be able to reach the province of Raqqah and too expand a buffer zone alongside the strategic Ithriyah-Khanasir-Aleppo road. This also opens additional opportunities for operations against ISIS in the provinces of Homs and Deir Ezzor. Click to see the full-size image A 10-minutes long video of clashes in eastern Aleppo:

Just days after president Trump left the region, a  geopolitical earthquake  is taking place in the Middle East tonight as the rift between Qatar and other members of the  (likely extinct)  Gulf Cooperation Council explodes with Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt cutting all diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing it of  “speading chaos,” by funding terrorism and supporting Iran. The dispute between Qatar and the Gulf’s Arab countries started over a purported hack of Qatar’s state-run news agency. It has spiraled since, and appears to be climaxing now… just  days after President Trump left the region. As Al Arabiya reports,  Bahrain has announced it is cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar, according to a statement carried on Bahrain News Agency. The statement on Monday morning said  Bahrain decided to sever ties with its neighbor “on the insistence of the State of Qatar to continue destabilizing the security and stability of the Kingdom of ...