ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On Wednesday, Houthis launched a ballistic missile on the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, Yemeni sources claimed. The Houthis media wing and the UAE government have not denied or confirm these claims so far. A local source from Abu Dhabi denied that any missile hit the city or any area near it.   It’s unlikely that these reports are true as the most advance ballistic missile the Houthis got is only 400km in range while Abu Dhabi is more than 600km away from Yemen. If Houthis indeed were able to target the UAE with a ballistic missile that got a range of over 600km it would be a big technological breakthrough for the Houthis missile force. However, even in this case this would mean that the missile had technical problems or was intercepted by the UAE Air Defense Force as it didn’t hit its target for sure. On Tuesday,  Houthi fighters repelled a large attack of Saudi-led forces in al-Aulib mountains in Najran near the Saudi-Yemeni border . The Houthis killed seve...

FILE IMAGE On August 30, Brigadier General Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of the 1st Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), announced that the AFP stepped up its bombing on the remaining ISIS-held area in Marawi city to open the way for the final push against terrorists. “One of the lessons we learned is that we really have to support the advance of troops by pouring all the firepower in,” Gen. Bautista said. Moreover, the AFP successfully captured the Mapandi bridge after weeks of clashes with ISIS fighters. The bridge was the last suppling route for ISIS in Marawi city. ISIS now controls only a 500-square-meter pocket inside Marawi city surrounded by the AFP from all sides. So far 617 ISIS fighters have been killed in the Marawi battle, while the AFP has lost 133 soldiers. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the battle to liberate Marawi entered its final phase. “We are in the final stages. So let us send immediately, ...

A U.S. black hawk helicopter flies over the site of a Taliban suicide attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan on August 2. JAVED TANVEER/AFP/GETTY On Wednesday, Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, denied the Taliban’s claims about downing a US helicopter in Logar province in central Afghanistan. “ The Taliban’s claim to have shot down a U.S. helicopter in Logar Province is false ,” Purtiman said. However, Purtiman revealed that a US helicopter had some technical problem and it made a precautionary landing. “ A helicopter did make a precautionary landing for a maintenance issue.   The aircraft has been successfully recovered ,” Purtiman explained. The Taliban claimed earlier that it downed a US helicopter in Logar province. Furthermore, the Taliban claimed that 20 US soldiers were killed in the attack. The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: “ As the American occupiers tried to airdrop a number of other American soldiers, the...

FILE IMAGE On Wednesday, Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah released an official message to the Iraqi people regarding the deal with ISIS fighters on the Syrian-Lebanese border. Nasrallah said that the message is an answer to  some Iraqi officials comments on the deal with ISIS . Nasrallah stated that the number of ISIS fighters who will leave is only 310. Nasrallah also said that these fighters are moved within the Syrian territories and denied moving them from the Lebanese border to the Iraqi border as some sources claimed. “The area they were moved to is the front line of the Syrian desert that everyone knows that the Syrian Arab Army –(SAA)- and its allies are fighting on it an intense fight, and that the spearhead of the attack on ISIS in the Syrian desert always been and will be Hezbollah who give away large numbers of martyrs there. By this we are moving these defeated militiamen – ISIS fighters – from a front we fight on, to another front that we fight on,” N...