ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

IRBIL, IRAQ — The video opens with high-definition footage shot from a drone flying over an oil refinery in central Iraq, but this video isn’t from a multi-million-dollar American drone. It’s from a drone operated by the Islamic State that likely cost a few thousand dollars. And the refinery – Iraq’s largest – is held by government forces, who have been besieged by the militants for the better part of a year. The video, called “Defiant Attack on the Apostates at the Refinery,” began appearing on jihadist-linked websites and Twitter accounts last week. It heralded an Islamic State assault on the oil refinery at Baiji, where Iraqi government soldiers have held out since last summer against surrounding Islamic State troops. In the end, the government kept hold of the refinery, the country’s largest, with the help of 47 airstrikes by the United States and a massive influx of Iraqi reinforcements. But beyond the outcome of the refinery battle, military analysts who’ve viewed the video find

By Rostislav Ishchenko Foreword by the Saker: The analysis below is, by far, the best I have seen since the beginning of the conflict in the Ukraine. I have regularly posted analyses by Ishchenko on this blog before, because I considered him as one of the best analysts in Russia. This time, however, Ishchenko has truly produced a masterpiece: a comprehensive analysis of the geostrategic position of Russia and a clear and, I believe, absolutely accurate analysis of the entire “Putin strategy” for the Ukraine. I have always said that this conflict is not about the Ukraine but about the future of the planet and that there is no “Novorussian” or even “Ukrainian” solution, but that the only possible outcome is a strategic victory of either Russia or the USA which will affect the entire planet. Ishchenko does a superb overview of the risks and options for both sides and offers the first comprehensive “key” to the apparentlyincomprehensible behavior of Russia in this conflict. Finally, Ish

Anti-government protesters carry an injured man on a stretcher after clashes with riot police in the Independence Square in Kiev February 20, 2014. (Reuters / Yannis Behrakis) Snipers who are thought to have operated in Kiev’s Independence Square amidst events that led to a coup in February 2014 were trained in Poland and sent to Ukraine to “do a favor” for the US, a Polish Euro-MP claimed in an interview. On February 20, 2014, riot police trying to restrain anti-government demonstrators on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev suddenly retreated up the street from whence they had come. As the protesters rushed forward, gunfire suddenly broke out, with many witnesses saying it was a sniper attack. In some two hours, 46 people were killed. A year after the tragedy that provoked a huge backlash from the Ukrainians, ultimately leading to the rapid toppling of then-President Viktor Yanukovich, the events on the square are still pending investigation. Several Berkut riot police officers have bee

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greets Korean People's Army.(Reuters / KCNA) North Korea could already possess up to 20 nuclear warheads and have a capacity to double its arsenal by next year, according to Chinese nuclear experts, the Wall Street Journal reports. Previous US estimates had put the total between 10 and 16. In April, the head of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, Admiral William Gortney, said the US military believes Pyongyang is capable of launching an ICBM with a nuclear warhead from a hard-to-track mobile launcher at the US West Coast. N Korea capable of launching ‘mobile’ nuke missile into US – NORAD “Our assessment is that they have the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a KN-08 [ballistic missile] and shoot it at the homeland. We assess that it’s operational today, and so we practice to go against it,” Gortney said. At the start of 2015 the US-Korea Institute at the John Hopkins University presented three scenarios of North Kor

The description of atomic bullets can be found in science fiction, but few people know that such munitions were reality in the USSR. One such bullet could melt an armoured tank, while several atomic bullets would destroy a multistory building. Why did the Soviet Union have to cease the production of such powerful ammo? It turns out that atomic bullets were invented in the USSR at the time when the country was striving for military parity with the US. They were not only created, but even tested. It goes about 14.3 mm and 12.7 mm caliber ammunition for heavy machine guns. Soviet engineers created a bullet of 7.62 mm - not for the Kalashnikov assault rifle, but for its machine gun. The cartridge was the most miniature nuclear weapon in the world. It is an open secret that any nuclear warhead should contain fissile material. For bombs, they take uranium 235 or plutonium 239. To make them work, the warhead made with the use of these metals should weigh more than one kilogram. In other wor

Fighters loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi call for help for a comrade who sustained injuries during clashes with Houthi fighters outside Hadi's house in the country's southern port city of Aden April 19, 2015 (Reuters / Stringer) Yemeni people have a full right to resist “Saudi aggression” and a planned occupation by “all means and options,” the Houthi rebel leader said, as Riyadh wraps-up the “first phase” of an operation that saw more than 2,300 airstrikes in less than a month. “It’s the right of our people to resist the aggression and face the aggressor by any means,” the leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said in a televised speech. Saudi Arabia’s goal is the “invasion” and “occupation” of Yemen, in order to “place this country again under its feet and hegemony,” al-Houthi said as the Saudi-led airstrike campaign entered its 26th day. “Our Yemeni people will never give in – it will resist in the face of the savage aggression,” th

As the Soma trial begins, MEE examines Turkey's ever-expanding neoliberal economic policies that have led to escalating mining deaths Relatives carry a list of the of Soma mining disaster victims' name as they arrive at the Akhisar High Criminal Court for the trial of the Soma mine disaster case in Manisa, Turkey on April 15, 2015. (AA) Cagri Ozdemir On the first day of the trial of the worst mining accident in Turkey that claimed the lives of 301 people in May 2014, national attention in the country is directed at Akhisar, Manisa. The small town, home to around 100,000 residents, is under the spotlight of national and international media coverage. Relatives of the lost miners, a total of 487 people, filed 139 individual cases against the proprietor of the mine, Soma Mining Inc. Out of the 45 defendants, eight of them are currently in custody and charged with wilful homicide of 301 victims. Last week, Akhisar Heavy Penal Court, the body that will hear the suit, announced

A $3 billion programme funded by Saudi Arabia seen as an attempt to counter Iranian influence in the Mediterranean country Lebanese armed forces take cover behind an armoured personal carrier in Tripoli (AFP) The first French weapons from a $3 billion Saudi-funded programme will arrive in Lebanon on Monday. Anti-tank guided missiles are set to arrive at an air force base in Beirut, overseen by French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Lebanese counterpart, Samir Mokbel. France is expected to deliver 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar helicopters, three small corvette warships and a range of surveillance and communications equipment over four years as part of the $3 billion (2.8 billion-euro) modernisation programme. It is being entirely funded by Saudi Arabia, which is keen to see Lebanon's army defend its borders against militant groups, particularly the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra, instead of leaving the job to Hezbollah militants, who a