ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Syrian government forces have liberated the Tulul Hayl area from ISIS and made gains against ISIS near Ramamin in the province of Homs. The Syrian army and its allies, backed up by the Russian Aerospace Forces, are preparing for a major push toward the ISIS-held town of Sukhna at the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road. Click to see the full-size map

Written by  Darius Shahtahmasebi ; Originally appeared at  theantimedia.org At the end of May, the Washington D.C.-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) released a  study  concluding that the death toll from the American-led “War on Terror” could be as high as two million just since the years following the 9/11 attacks. The study, entitled “Body Count,” is 97 pages long and involved tallying up the total number of civilian casualties from U.S.-led adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media has paid close to zero attention to this report despite the high-profile nature of the group that produced it (they shared in the 1985  Nobel Peace Prize  with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The study found that in many instances, previous estimates had “grossly” underestimated the body count. According to the researchers: “ The figure is approximately 10 times g...

© AFP 2017/ George OURFALIAN The Russian Military Police may be deployed in buffer zones in Syria, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Astana talks and the president’s envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said on Tuesday. “So far, it is difficult to speak about the presence of Russian monitors and defense ministry representatives, but,  in general, it is supposed that Russian military police could be deployed in buffer security zones ,” Lavrentyev said, according to  TASS . “ This issue has not yet been finally agreed. It will imply the status of de-escalation control forces. “ He added that sides will begin setting up security zones within two-three weeks after signing relevant documents. “A very important aspect is that all the  guarantor countries want to set up a joint coordination center to monitor security in the de-escalation zones . I think we can pass this document in principle,” he said. However, the Russian official added that there are ...