ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Militants from Daesh (also known as ISIL/ISIS) are currently undergoing civil aviation training in the Libyan city of Sirte, the group’s apparent stronghold in North Africa, according to the Saudi-run, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. The outlet says that the terrorists “practice take-off and landing, [using] a radar screen, and a communications device to contact the control tower.” The “prevailing belief amongst investigators” is that the flight simulator was seized from the training departments of Gaddafi’s looted airports. © AFP 2015/ MAHMUD TURKIA Members of forces loyal to Libya's Islamist-backed parliament General National Congress (GNC) secure the Al-Ghardabiya airbase as they fight Islamic State (IS) group jihadists on the outskirts of Libya's western city of Sirte on March 16, 2015 However other sources note that it is a brand new device and “may have arrived from abroad”. A group of Daesh leaders, including retired officers from Libya and a number of neighb

A massive manhunt for the people who opened fire on a holiday party outside of Los Angeles ended Wednesday afternoon with a man and a woman, both suspected shooters, dead and a third person detained, police said. Fourteen people were killed and 17 wounded at a social services facility east of Los Angeles, according to the San Bernardino Police Department. Police initially sought up to three gunmen, but now believe the two people killed in a gun battle later on Wednesday were the only shooters involved in the deadly shooting – the worst in the U.S. since 2012. Gunmen in San Bernardino Mass Shooting 'Came Prepared' Police identified the suspected attackers as American Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, whose nationality was unknown. It is not clear how they were related. "I am in shock that something like this can happen," Farhan Khan, Farook's brother-in-law, said at a press conference Wednesday evening. "I hope everyone can understand and (that)

The Russian Defense Ministry has released evidence which it says unmasks vast illegal oil trade by Islamic State and points to Turkey as the main destination for the smuggled petrol, implicating its leadership in aiding the terrorists. The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday. According to Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Russia is aware of three main oil smuggling routes to Turkey. “Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Antonov said, adding that this oil “in large quantities” enters the territory of Turkey via “live oil pipelines,” consisting of thousands of oil trucks. The routes of alleged oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq to Turkey © syria.mil.ru Antonov added that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled oil coming from Iraq and Syria. “According to our data, the top polit

Turkey has begun a defacto blockade of Russian naval vessels, preventing transit through the Dardanelles and the Strait of Bosporus, between the Black Sea and Mediterranean. According to the AIS tracking system for the movement of maritime vessels, only Turkish vessels are moving along the Bosphorus, and in the Dardanelles there is no movement of any shipping at all. At the same time, both from the Black Sea, and from the Mediterranean Sea, there is a small cluster of ships under the Russian flag, just sitting and waiting. The image below shows the situation with the ships using the GPS transponder onboard each vessel: In addition, shipping inside the Black Sea from Novorossiisk and Sevastopol in the direction of the Bosphorus, no Russian vessels are moving. This indirectly confirms the a CNN statement that Turkey may have blocked the movement of Russian ships on the Dardanelles and the Strait of Bosporus. There is a Treaty specifically covering the use of these waterways by nat

Before and... After

US demands Turkey to "seal" notorious 100 km border region with Syria, but may be pretext to invade and establish long-sought after "safe haven" for terrorists in Syria. (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - In the most open admission yet that NATO-member Turkey has been allowing a torrent of supplies, weapons, fighters, and equipment to flow across its borders with impunity and into the hands of the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (ISIS), the US has urged Ankara to seal the remaining 100 km border region yet to be closed by Syrian and Kurdish forces. The Wall Street Journal in its article, " U.S. Urges Turkey to Seal Border ," reported that: The Obama administration is pressing Turkey to deploy thousands of additional troops along its border with Syria to cordon off a 60-mile stretch of frontier that U.S. officials say is used by Islamic State to move foreign fighters in and out of the war zone. The U.S. hasn’t officially requested a specific number of soldi

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has criticized Turkey for not using its air power properly since the Daesh (ISIL) terrorists first arose close to its border in Syria. The Pentagon chief told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that most of the air attacks Turkey has launched so far are directed at PKK militants, not ISIL terrorists. “Most of their air operations are not directed at ISIL,” Carter said. “They are directed at the PKK, which we understand their concern about — it’s a terrorist organization within their borders — but we would like to see them do more against ISIL.” Ankara has also failed to control its borders “effectively,” Carter said. “I have been urging, actually, since I’ve come to this job, Turkey to do more.” The US defense secretary said that Turkey’s geography makes it a useful asset to the US-led international coalition against Daesh, but Ankara has failed to show any significant performance in this regard. “We would like them to operate more both in