ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Click to see the full-size image The Iranian authorities placed former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under house arrest after he had publicly criticized the current Iranian government, according to a report of the UK-based al-Quds al-Arabi on January 6. According to al-Quds al-Arabi, Ahmadinejad accused the government of Iran President Hassan Rouhani of mismanagement and criticized it during a public speech in the southern city of Bushehr on December 28. “Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people and do not know anything about the reality of society … What it suffers Iran today is mismanagement and not lack of economic resources,” Ahmadinejad said in his public speech, according to al-Quds al-Arabi. The al-Quds al-Arabi report suggested that Ahmadinejad’s statement was likely a response to President Rouhani, who accused him earlier of planning to confront the Iranian government. Western and Arab media linked the suppo...

Click to see the full-size image On January 7, a heavy VBIED exploded in al-Thalathin street in the western part of Idlib city. The Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV said that the VBIED targeted the headquarters of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ajnad Caucasus group. 25 civilians and fighters of Ajnad Caucasus were killed and many others were injured in the VBIED attack, according to local sources. Al-Mayadeen said that opposition activists accused Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham of carrying out the VBIED attack as a punishment against Ajnah Caucasus because they fled the battlefield in the southeastern Idlib countryside. During the last few days, several prominent figures of the Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) accused HTS of handing over its positions in southeastern Idlib to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). On the other side, pro-HTS activists accused FSA groups and even the locals of supporting the SAA, especially after the Syrian Arab Air Force Intelligence (SyAAFI)  leaked...

Illustrative image On January 7, ISIS fighters attacked several checkpoints and positions of the Afghan Police in Dewa Gul area of the eastern Kunar province, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The media outlet claimed that ISIS fighters killed 15 Afghan policemen and injured 27 others. Five Humvee vehicles of the Afghan Police were reportedly destroyed by ISIS. Abdul Ghani Musamim spokesman for Kunar province governor told Pajhwok Afghan News that only three Afghan policemen were killed in the ISIS attack. Musamim also claimed that the Afghan Police killed 15 fighters of ISIS and injured 22 other while repelling the attack on their positions in Dewa Gul area. The ISIS attack in Kunar province shows how the terrorist group is trying to expand out of its main stronghold in Afghanistan, Nangarhar province south of Kunar. On the same day, the Afghan Army announced that 20 members of ISIS, including two key leaders of the terrorist group, identified as “Mawlavi Tur...