ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has instructed the foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council over an incursion by Turkish troops in the north of the country. In a statement on his website, Al Abadi asked that the Security Council order Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country will not withdraw troops from a camp close to the Daesh-controlled city of Mosul, , despite strong objections from Baghdad. The deployed soldiers are not combat troops, but have been sent to protect soldiers providing training to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, Erdogan told reporters at a news conference that was broadcast live by TRT. Turkey is “determined” to continue the training, he added. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said on Friday that Turkey has decided in talks with Iraqi officials to “reorganise” its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp. Turkey’s Foreign Ministr...

Could going out for a jog put national security at risk? If you’re in the military and you use a fitness tracker, the answer to that question appears to be yes as information published by athletic activity app Strava recently revealed secret U.S. military bases around the world. The website and mobile app, which connects to smartphones and wearable fitness trackers like Fitbits to track and share athletic activity online, found itself in the spotlight after  posting a heat map  that shows where its users run, bicycle and exercise. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of activity through popular streets and suburban parks, but it’s the little lights indicating activity that popped up in some of the world’s most remote locations that is posing a big problem. That’s because they inadvertently revealed the location of not only sensitive military sites but also the movements of intelligence operatives and international aid workers, among others. Moreover, tech-minded individua...

On February 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mocked the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and rejected the US criticism of Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch in the Syrian area of Afrin. “When are you going to finish with us asking the question, when did you finish your operations in Afghanistan? When did you finish your operations in Iraq? It’s been 18 years,” the president said at a meeting of his AK Party in the parliament, according to  Hurriyet newspaper . Erdogan continued saying that the US has “calculations against Turkey, Iran and maybe Russia” in Syria and described the US presence there as opportunistic. Erdogan also said that the US should to withdraw from the Syrian city of Manbij, which is now controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democrataic Forces (SDF), mostly consisting of Kurdish militias. He added that Turkish forces will return “to its true owners.” The existing diplomatic tensions between Washington and Ankara have grown fur...

UPDATE:  The Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed  the attack and said that its forces had responded to “a new Israeli aggression”. “The general command of the armed forces holds Israel fully responsible for the dangerous consequences for its repeated, aggressive and uncalculated adventures,” the military said in a statement. According to the released statement, the attack took place at 3:42 local time. *** Israel Breaking @IsraelBreaking BREAKING: Israeli raids reported in vicinity of Syrian capital of Damascus. Explosions heard, surface to air responses reported. 04:02 - 7 Feb 2018 105 154 people are talking about this Twitter Ads information and privacy Overnight on February 7, the Israeli Air Force fired three missiles at a target in the Damascus countryside. The strike was allegedly aimed at a technology research center in the Jemraya area. According to pro-government sources, the Syrian Air Defense Forces shot...

On February 6,  the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) accused the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) of using shells containing chlorine gas in the Bulbul district in the Syrian area of Afrin . In turn, the YPG released own statement saying that the Turksih Army was the side that used chemical weapons. According to the YPG, the Turkish military accidentally shelled allied FSA fighters. The statement released by the YPG’s media wing ( source ): The occupying Turkish state and the terrorist groups under their control claim that chemical weapons were used by the YPG in order to fabricate a cover for their fiasco in the north of Afrin. On the contrary, the Turkish army, which suffered heavy blows during our operations in the Şêkurzê area, bombed the area with artillery shells from chemical weapons. Our forces moved to high points after being subjected to the effects of the weapon during conflict, and the Turkish-backed terrorists left on the ground were affected b...