ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Ramzy Baroud Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, snatched back from the notorious group, Daesh, after months of merciless bombardment by the US-led war coalition, and a massive ground war. But ‘victory’ can hardly be the term assigned to this moment.  Mosul, once Iraq’s cultural jewel and model of co-existence, is now a ‘city of corpses’, as  described by a foreign journalist  who walked through the ruins, while shielding his nose from a foul smell. “You’ve probably heard of thousands killed, the civilian suffering,” Murad Gazdiev said. “What you likely haven’t heard of is the smell. It’s nauseating, repulsive, and it’s everywhere – the smell of rotting bodies.” Actually, the “smell of rotting bodies” can be found everywhere that Daesh has been defeated. The group that once declared a Caliphate – an Islamic state – in Iraq and Syria in 2014, and was left to freely expand in all directions, is now bein...

U.S. Made Similar Deal With ISIS By Moon Of Alabama Last week the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah defeated ISIS in the Lebanese-Syrian border area of Qalamun. A ceasefire was announced and a deal was made. Lebanon received the bodies of its army fighters earlier captured and killed by ISIS. The remaining ISIS fighter and their families would  disarm and receive free passage  to ISIS held areas in east Syria. The U.S. has now launched a media campaign against this deal. The Iraqi government has joined in. As noted in the  last Syria Summary  here: In the Qalamun area at the Lebanese border the Lebanese army and Hizbullah attacked the last ISIS enclave along that border. Today the remaining 200 ISIS fighters in the area agreed to lay down arms in exchange for an evacuation towards east-Syria. The later announced total of evacuees was higher  with 308 ISIS fighters  and about 500 of their relatives  including kids . These are transported in 17 bus...

On August 31, the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement released an official statement accusing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) of assassinating one of its commanders, Sayeed al-Barshah. Al-Barshah was the commander of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement in Taladah village in the northern Idlib countryside. Click to see the full-size image According to al-Zenki Movement statement al-Barshah was killed with an IED on the road to the village of Taladah. The Al-Zenki Movement added that they were able to arrest the attackers who confessed and revealed that they were members of HTS. Shortly after that, HTS forces attacked Taladah village and freed the imprisoned HTS memebers. The Al-Zenki Movement also claimed that HTS captured the town and killed a number of its fighters. However, local sources claimed that the clashes in Taladah was between the al-Barshah family and the Qutibah family. Apparently the al-Barshah family consists of supporters of the al-Zenki Movement, while the Qutiba...

A screenshot from the video Russian warplanes have destroyed 9 pieces of the military equipment, 20 trucks loaded with fuel, arms and ammunition, 3 ammunition depots and a command center belonging to ISIS over 2 days of opeations near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. “Over the past two days, Russian planes have destroyed  9 pieces of hardware, including two tanks, 6 artillery nests, one homemade multiple rocket launchers, 3 ammunition depots, a command center, as well as 20 trucks loaded with fuel, arms and ammunition ,” the ministry statement reads. The ministry added that ISIS has been deploying more and more forces to Deir Ezzor. “Daesh [ISIS] militants are not giving up their efforts to halt the advance of Syrian troops by  moving armored vehicles, off-road vehicles with mounted heavy machine guns, arms and ammunition to the Deir Ez-Zor [Deir Ezzor] area and by setting up new positions reinforce...

Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada in a message on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha announced that the departure of all American and NATO forces from Afghanistan is the only solution to end the war and violence in Afghanistan. He also denied any Taliban links with terrorist attacks and declared that the Taliban controls more than half of the country. However, this claim contradicts to the info provided by the US military. Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that government forces control 62% of the country and the Taliban controls only 10%. The rest of the area is contested, according to the general. The Pentagon has also confirmed that there are about 11,000 US troops in Afghanistan, including regular troops and  special forces. The US is going to send about 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan under the newly declared strategy in the country.

An ISIS Hunters fighter is in Uqayribat. Click to see the full-size image On Friday, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies captured Rasm al-Abd village south of Uqayribat town in the eastern Hama countryside, according to pro-government sources. The source added that the SAA also captured Huraysha, Wadi al-Azem and al-Mua’adamiah villages southeast of Uqayribat town. Earlier reports appeared that  the SAA captured Uqayribat town . The 5th Assault Corps’s ISIS Hunters released a photo near Uqayribat “Public Services Committee”. This confirms that the SAA and its allies were inside Uqayribat town even if they were not under their full control. Meanwhile, pro-government sources claimed that the SAA captured Bishri oil field and the pitch factory near the Bishri mount in the province of Deir Ezzor. Some sources argied that the SAA was in only 35km from Deir Ezzor city. However, these claims are likely false. The SAA media department released a video ...