ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On May 24, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) annonced in an official statement that its units had captured a group of ISIS fighters including French-jihadist Adrien Guihal during a special operation inside Syria on May 19. The US-backed force claimed that its intelligence had tracked Guihal for months before it had been able to capture him. Adrien Guihal The SDF revealed that Guihal had joined ISIS on 6 March of 2015 after he had managed to enter Syria through the Tell Abyad border crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border. According to the SDF statement, Guihal played a key role in the terrorist attacks that hit the French capital of Paris on November 13 and 14 of 2015 and in the ramming attack in the city of Nice on July 14, 2016. The US-backed force said that it had also captured Guihal’s wife during the same operation, but didn’t clarify if it is planning to hand him over to France, or at least to French troops that are now operating in the SDF-held areas in easte...

Illustrative image In an interview to the CCTV, a military scholar with the China National Defense University Wang Mingliang said that Beijing could send its Chengdu J-20 stealth fifth-generation fighter aircraft for patrols over Taiwan,  the Asia Times reported on May 21 . Mingliang stressed that Taiwan’s F-16 fighter aircraft and Dassault Mirage 2000 jet fighters would not be able to counter the Beijing force. Mingliang also pointed out that the Taiwanese military is not well acknowledged with the J-20 fighter aircraft and it is concerned about the capability of “precision strikes on the leadership or key targets.” This allegation comes after the successful May 9 exercise of the China’s Chengdu J-20 stealth fifth-generation fighter jets in sea areas for the first time. On May 23, the Pentagon officially announced that China is uninvited from a major naval drill Rim of Pacific (RIMPAC) 2018 after it criticized China’s “continued militarization” on May 19,  Reute...

FILE IMAGE: M142 high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) launcher On May 24, the US Army in Afghanistan annonced in an official statement that its Task Force-Southwest targeted a high-level headquarter of the Taliban in the Musa Qala district of the southern Helmand province with a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The US Army claimed that prominent commanders of the Taliban had planned and facilitated several attacks against the Afghan Army and security forces in the targeted headquarter. However, the results of the rocket strike were not revealed. “One way we support our Afghan partners is with kinetic strikes so that they are able to maintain the offensive … Strikes like this one not only degrade Taliban operations, but also give our partners the ability to maintain continuous pressure against a weakened enemy.” said U.S. Marine Corps Brigade General Benjamin T. Watson, Task Force-Southwest commander. Meanwhile, Mohammad Yousef Ahmadi, a sp...