ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

This video was originally released by SouthFront on March 20, 2019 Written and produced by  SF Team : Brian Kalman ,  Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson Introduction With the possible U.S. military withdrawal from Syria in the news on a daily basis, the mainstream media has been quick to parrot the DOD’s claim that 2,000 troops, mostly special operations forces, are to be withdrawn from the country. Although the total number of U.S. special operators deployed to Syria may have approached as many as 5,000, the current headlines have not mentioned that the United States has special operations units deployed not just in Syria, but in a majority of the nations of the world. Over the past seventeen years, the forces at the disposal of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) have grown exponentially, more than doubling in size in numbers, with a budget that has also expanded four fold in that same period of time. U.S. special operations forces on patrol in northern Syria. Althou...

The controversy over Saudi Crown Prince MbS’s alleged orchestration of the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi has largely subsided since the government insider-turned-critic walked into the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in early October and never walked out. But a new controversy is brewing over one of the kingdom’s most controversial practices: Its mass-beheadings of men convicted of ‘terrorism’ charges, typically members of the Shiite minority living in the eastern part of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has long practiced execution by beheading. But this year, the mass extermination of 37 of mostly Shiite men this week  provoked condemnation from the UN and other human rights organizations,  as several teenage boys were executed for crimes as seemingly petty a sending Whatsapp messages about government demonstrations. One particularly disturbing case was recounted in the  UK’s The Sun  tabloid. Abdulkareem al-Hawaj was just just 16 when he was arrested. Ju...

Turkish forces are setting up a wall separating the occupied Afrin region from the rest of Syria; On April 25, the Syrian Democratic Council (the SDF’s political wing) released a statement blaiming the Assad government for the current situation in Afrin. Later, the statement was deleted ; The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) eliminated rocket launchers used by militants to shell Latakia city ; Russia’s Hmeimim airbase came under rocket fire on April 26; The Russian Aerospace Forces struck terrorist targets near Kansafra, Almaouzrah, Hirsh al-Qasabin, Hirsh Abdin, Tramla, Hizareen, Hobait and Kafr Nabl . Click to see the full-size image

Click to see full-size image On April 24th and 25th, the identities of some of the suicide bombers from the Sri Lanka terror attacks were revealed. ISIS ‘Amaq News Agency, following their statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, published two more statements. The statement says that 1,000 people were killed or injured in the orchestrated assault. That statement highlighted the fact that Christians were the intended target, as they are supposedly at war with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s enterprise. The statement also provides the aliases for several of the bombers. The third statement included a photograph of the alleged attackers. Click to see full-size image Two of them were members of a prominent and wealthy family in Colombo,  according to sources cited by CNN. The brothers, Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim and Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim were two of the suicide bombers. Their father, Mohamed Ibrahim, is the founder of Colombo-based Ishana Exports, which describes itself o...

Click to see full-size image. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un met on  Russky Island, Vladivostok on April 25 th . Negotiations began with a conversation of the heads of two states in a “one-on-one” format, then consultations continued with the participation of members of delegations. Josh Berlinger ✔ @j_berlingerCNN Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin speak after meeting for the first time. Kim appears to be breathing heavily at times. 2 8:04 AM - Apr 25, 2019 See Josh Berlinger's other Tweets Twitter Ads info and privacy At the beginning of the one-on-one meeting, Putin said the following: “Dear Mr. Chairman! I am very pleased to see you in Russia. Our colleagues have long been working on this meeting. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your election to the high office of the head of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I sent you the corresp...