ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Source: pravda.com.ua A series of car bombings has hit officers of Ukrainian intelligence services this week. On June 27,  Col. Maxim Shapoval of the Chief Directorate of Ukrainian military intelligence was killed in Kiev . His car was blown up. Some Ukrainian media reported that Shapoval was chief of military intelligence’s special forces. On June 28, a car with servicemen of the Security Service of Ukraine was hit by an IED in the Kiev controlled part of the Donetsk region.  SBU Col. Yuriy Vozny was killed , three other servicemen were injured. The deaths of Ukrainian intelligence officers caused significant jitters in the Ukrainian media and among experts following the conflict in eastern Ukraine. According to experts there are two main versions of the events: The recent deaths is a part of the ongoing internal standoff in the Ukrainian intelligence services. Few factions are combating for the control over the money flows and criminal businesses as well as for the po

FILE IMAGE: ypgrojava.org The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have advanced in the southern and southeastern Raqqa countryside. The SDF took control of Mustajd Naqib village and Al-Kamb area southern Raqqa. Moreover, the SDF seized Qusra Afnan village in the southwestern Raqqa countryside and killed 4 ISIS fighters. In Raqqa City, an ISIS VBIED targeted a gathering of SDF troops in Al-Mashlabi district. Another VBIED targeted the SDF in Al-Sabahia village west of Raqqa. Moreover, ISIS claimed that its snipers killed two SDF fighters and wounded three others in the Al-Barazi Roundabout. The United Nations said that more than 100,000 civilians are still inside the ISIS-held areas in Raqqa city. Opposition sources published a new video of a displaced man from Raqqa talking about practices and insults, including physical violence, directed at him and his wife by the SDF after they left Raqqa. It seems that tensions between the people of Raqqa and the SDF are not goi

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has launched a counterattack against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the vicinity of Al-Baath City and Al-Hamidiya in the Quneitra province. According to a source from the SAA, government troops have retaken three positions in the vicinity of Al-Baath city so far. From its side, the Operations Room Jaish Muhammad, which includes FSA and HTS, claimed that it managed to kill 109 Syrian soldiers and destroy 3 tanks and 3 vehicles of the SAA during the attack on Al-Baath. Click to see the full-size image In Daraa, the commander of the ISIS-linked Jaish Khalid was killed along with a group of field commanders in an air strike carried out by unidentified warplanes. The airstrike hit the headquarters of Jaish Khalid in Jalin village in the western Daraa countryside. According to opposition sources, the air strike was carried out by the US-led coalition. However, the US-led coalition hasn’t officially claimed