ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Michael Brady ; Originally appeared at  Strategic-culture.org On June 5, South Korean President Moon Jai-in ordered an environmental impact assessment in the area where four additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers were to be deployed. THAAD is a mobile system capable of hitting ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere in their final, or terminal, phase. The unexpected move has caused alarm for policy makers in Washington, DC, who are worried about Beijing’s influence on the newly elected president. (Courtesy Photo) THAAD is a defensive system designed to track and shoot down missiles designated for targets inside South Korea and throughout the region. Its primary purpose is to defend US military personnel (approximately 28,000) and South Korean critical infrastructure from North Korean missile launches. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula continue to ebb and flow as Washington has requested assistance from Beijing to reign in the

Soldiers onboard military trucks ride along the main street as government troops continue their assault on insurgents from the Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, Philippines June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Marawi will not be turned into an ISIS hub or a province of the terrorist group in Southeast Asia, said Philippine Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a media briefing. “It’s unlikely for Marawi to become a new hub for IS fighters. The Philippine military has already pre-empted the Maute group from establishing a wilayat or a province in Marawi,”CNN quoted the presidential  spokesman . The comment followed US media reports that the Philippine military is conducting not enough efforts to drive ISIS members from the city of Marawi. On Tuesday, government troops, backed up by warplanes and helicopters, launched another offensive against ISIS members inside the city. According to military sources, the army hopes to liberate the whole city s

According to a source in the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF), Lieutenant Colonel Ali Fahd took off in the afternoon of June 18 from the T4 airbase east of Homs. From an older video we know that the warplane is a Soviet made ground attack Su-22M4 with the serial number “3224”. According to our source the Su-22M4 was loaded with six general purpose OFAB 250-270 bombs. Ali Fahd’s mission was to strike ISIS fighters and vehicles attempting to withdrew from Rusafah in the province of Raqqah towards Sukhnah in the province of Homs and Oqerbat in the eastern Hama countryside – near Ali Fahd’s home town of Salamyiah. Connection with Ali Fahd was lost after reaching the operation area over Rusafah. From the other end of the story Mary Walash, a CBS producer, said that US Navy A/F-18E Super Hornet fired two missiles at the Syrian warplane. It had to fire a second missile after the first missed. According to Walash’s story, the engagement range was below 6 miles meaning that mostly the A

Media reports appeared online claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin showed filmmaker Oliver Stone footage of a US helicopter shooting Tliban extremists in Afghanistan and told him it was the Russian Aerospace Forces operating in Syria. In turn, Kremlin denied these reports. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the pro-opposition news site “ Meduza ” that “this is not true. Nonsense.” The scene that caused the situation appears in the third part of Oliver Stone’s Showtime special “The Putin Interviews”. The moment occurs at 47 minutes, 10 seconds. Putin shows Stone a video on a mobile phone and tells: “That’s how our air forces are operating. These militants are running with arms; not just machine guns, but they have some serious weaponry at their disposal, which they used to destroy army vehicles.” [UPDATE 21.06.2017] The video above was removed from Youtube. However, you can find a part of the scene in the trailer below from 0:09: The  alleged  original video