ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Soldiers stand guard along the main street of Mapandi village, Philippines June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco On March 31, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced in an official statement that its units had captured “Walton Jujirin”, a sub-leader of the ISIS-affiliated group Abu Sayyaf in the Patikul area of the southern province of Sulu. Jujirin was wounded and left behind by his four fighters when he was captured, according to the AFP. AFP units were reportedly conducting a security operation to rescue Philippines and foreign hostages from Abu Sayyaf in the Patikul area when the civilians informed them about the location of Jujirin. According to the AFP, Jujirin and his units are responsible for a series of IEDs attacks against the AFP in Sulu province. On March 30 only, three soldiers of the AFP were killed when their vehicle was targeted with an IED in Sulu, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. Click to see the full-size image The AFP intensifi...

On March 31, an Israeli drone  crashed in southern Lebanon  as a result of a “technical failure”, according to the Israeli Army. Experts were able to identify the drone as the Hermes 450 medium size multi-payload Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) manufactured by the Israeli Elbit Systems company. Click to see the full-size image Unexpectedly, the Hermes 450 UAV remains in the crash site revealed that it had been armed with at least four projectiles. Israel don’t acknowledge that Hermes 450 is an armed UAV and its officials have refused to confirm the use of armed UAVs on many occasions before. Click to see the full-size image This is not the first time experts come across an evidence that proves the Israelis are operating armed UAVs. A report by the UK Government Communications Headquarters, which was leaked by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealed that some Israeli UAVs are indeed armed. A video from the report even showed an Israeli Heron TP UAV carryi...