ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

ISIS fighters have carried out 13 ambushes against the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in the provinces of al-Anbar, Kirkuk, Diyala and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad over the last two weeks, according to an infographic released by the ISIS-linked newspaper al-Nab’a on March 29. Al-Nab’a claimed that 97 Iraqi fighters, including 7 commanders and officers, were killed and 13 others were captured by ISIS. ISIS fighters also destroyed 9 vehicles of the Iraqi Army and PMU and captured 7 others, according to al-Nab’a. Click to see the full-size image ISIS cells implement a variety of tactics to ambush the Iraqi Army and the PMU, including targeting their vehicles with IEDs or even setting fake checkpoints on key roads to kidnap or assassinate army soldiers and officers. Facing such a serious threat, the Iraqi Army, the PMU and security forces have launched a series of security operations against ISIS cells in northern and western Iraq since the beginning of...

REUTERS/ Peter Nicholls Written by  J.Hawk   Introduction Given the international furor sparked by the poisoning, in an apparent attempt to murder, former GRU Colonel Skripal and his daughter, very public information has been released that would help ordinary citizens make up their minds on what happened. Scotland Yard has no suspects. In a country full of CCTV cameras, no images have been made public and no composite sketches, let alone photos, of persons of interest have been released. No images of Skripals have been released, and no Russian consular officials have been allowed to see them, in violation of international norms. Porton Down press release issued after preliminary investigation of samples only stated that the agent was a “Novichok class or a related agent”, which appears to narrow it down to the entire category of nerve agents. The British government refused Russia’s offer to assist in the investigation, and refused to share any evidence it claims to h...