ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation said that the Russian Air Force destroyed around 1,100 terrorist positions in Syria since the beginning of 2016. Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, Forces Lt.Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, stated on Monday that within the first 10 days of 2016, the Russian Air Force carried out 311 sorties targeting 1,097 terrorist positions in the countryside of Damascus, Aleppo, Idleb, Lattakia, Hama, Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hasaka, Daraa, and Raqqa provinces. He said that the airstrikes targeted petroleum infrastructure controlled by terrorists, sites for extracting and refining oil, positions where terrorist groups were stationed, and military equipment, asserting that the airstrikes focus on weakening the capabilities of terrorist organizations and providing direct support to the Syrian Arab Army and other formations fighting ISIS. Rudskoy noted that the most significant successes in battle against terrorists we...

Deir Ezzor, SANA –ISIS terrorists committed a massacre in al-Bghailiye village in Deir Ezzor’s western countryside, claiming the lives of around 300 civilians, most of them women, children, and elderly people, Local sources told SANA. The Cabinet condemned the heinous crime, with Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi saying that the legal and moral responsibility for this barbaric and cowardly massacre committed by ISIS hordes lies on the shoulders of all the states that support terrorism and that fund and armor Takfiri organizations which harbor hatred for all humanity. The Premier said that terrorist organizations are committing massacres to make up for the recurring losses and defeats they suffer at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army, and that these terror organizations know that their days in Syria are numbered. He said that such massacres will not dissuade Syrians from pursuing reconciliations and working to liberate the entirety of Syrian territories, offering condolences to the familie...

The defense ministry’s representative said over recent five years the organization’s head and sole employee was the man called Ossama Suleiman, who moved to the UK in 2000 after having served three prison terms in Syria and who took the nickname of Rami Abdurrahman. By Igor Konashenkov General Konashenkov said the ministry has found out who is behind the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which distributes information blackmailing the Russian Aerospace Force grouping in Syria. According to the official, the man moved to the United Kingdom after serving three terms in Syria. "The first throwing-in of false information about claimed victims in the Russian air strikes appeared in social networks and some western media well before our mission in the Syrian Arab Republic began," he said. "Most information was distributed on behalf of so-called ‘Syrian human rights activists’." In "distribution" of the statements made by those "human rights activis...

A general view shows a deserted street filled with debris of damaged buildings in Deir al-Zor March 5, 2014. Picture taken March 5, 2014. REUTERS/STRINGER BEIRUT - Islamic state militants killed dozens of people execution style in attacks on government-held areas in Syria's city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, a source and a monitoring said. A source close to the Syrian government side said the Islamic State fighters killed at least 250 people, including pro-government fighters and their families when they attacked the neighborhoods of Begayliya and Ayash in the city. He said some of the casualties were beheaded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence in the country through a wide network of local sources, said the militants killed dozens. "We have 60 people confirmed killed, but the number is big. The details are hard to get so far but the deaths are in dozens," the Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters. The Observatory said earli...

CHINA is set to plunge the world into an economic crisis sending stock markets crashing by 75 per cent - with devastating consequences for the US and UK, a leading city expert has warned. By Lana Clements The sinking value of the Chinese currency is already crippling British industry as it can’t compete with China’s cheap exports. Other Western nations are also feeling the strain. And with even more to come experts have predicted an 'ice age' for the world’s economies – including Britain’s. Global deflation is going to wipe around 75 per cent in value off the American S&P stock market, as western firms will be unable to compete with cheap Chinese exports, according to analyst Albert Edwards from french bank Societe Generale. He gave the stark warning in an investment note to clients. And he blamed the upcoming 'carnage' on American central bank (the Fed) and its British and European counterparts for inflating prices in the first place. American Quantitative Easing (...

By Dan Sanchez Before the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror, Louis XV predicted , “After me, the Deluge.” Before being overthrown, Libya’s secular dictator tried to warn the West of a new Reign of Terror, essentially foretelling, “After me, the Jihad.” This was disclosed with the recent release of phone conversations from early 2011 between Muammar Gaddafi and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The West was then gearing up to use unrest in Libya as a pretext for military intervention and regime change. Gaddafi desperately tried to convey through Blair the folly of such a war, pleading that he was trying to defend Libya from Al Qaeda, which had set up base in the country. He said: “They have managed to get arms and terrify people. people can’t leave their homes… It’s a jihad situation. They have arms and are terrorising people in the street.” Gaddafi’s warning went unheeded, and NATO, led by the U.S. and France, launched an air war that toppled Libya’s government. Later ...

Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test may be a last-ditch effort to get on the U.S. agenda before Obama leaves office and a hawkish new president comes in. By Christine Ahn (Photo: Gabriel Britto / Flickr) North Korea announced recently that it had successfully detonated its first hydrogen bomb. “This test is a measure for self-defense,” state media announced, “to firmly protect the sovereignty of the country and the vital right of the nation from the ever-growing nuclear threat and blackmail by the U.S.-led hostile forces.” South Korea, Japan, and China were swift to respond with condemnation, as was the UN Security Council, which issued a statement that North Korea’s test was a “clear violation of Security Council resolutions” and resolved to take “further significant measures.” Many observers, however, including nuclear weapons experts and government officials, doubt whether North Korea really did test a hydrogen bomb. “I don’t think this was a hydrogen bomb,” said Bill Richardson , a fo...

When nuclear weapons become user-friendly, they will be used. By Russ Wellen The B-61-12 is a “dial-a-yield,” weapon, which means the explosive power can be tailored to its target. (Photo: Visokio.com) The B-61 is 12-foot-long, 700-pound thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb that has been a stalwart of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal since the 1960s. (Hey, at least it’s not as old as the B-52 bomber, which first flew in — you guessed it — 1952.) Its re-design, which now makes it the B-61-12, has generated even more controversy than nuclear weapons in general. Here are three of the sticking points. First, the cost of refurbishing the U.S. nuclear weapons program: Up to $1 trillion over 30 years, it does — under the department of thank-goodness-for-small favors — lend credence to those who think that the program will die a slow death due to budgetary attrition. Second, the B-61-12’s re-design: Is it actually a new weapon or just “modernization,” in accord with the administration’...