ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Islamic State (IS) group on Wednesday captured four areas in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province in western Iraq, while heavy clashes are underway, a provincial security source said. The IS militants carried out attacks at dawn on the positions of the security forces and allied Shiite and Sunni militias and managed to seize the areas of Soufiyah, Albu Ghanim, Albu Mahal and Albu Souda in eastern Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. He said the extremist militants in early hours of the day blew up three suicide truck bombs at the police station in Soufiyah district and the blasts were followed by advance of dozens of IS militants who after four hours seized the whole district and spread to nearby areas. The security forces and Hashid Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, militiamen withdrew from their positions in Ramadi to the nearby huge airbase of Habbaniyah after the IS attacks during the day, the source said. The battles in Anbar came

by Jamal Hashim Tough battles against the Islamic State (IS) militants loom in the Sunni heartland of Anbar province, as Iraq i government under growing pressure to reach out to the disenfranchised Sunni community. Abadi on Monday paid his first official visit to Washington as a prime minister at a pivotal moment after Iraqi forces and allied militias retook control of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, with the help of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. Observers here see that Abadi is going to ask for more support from the international coalition to fight the IS militant group which seize large parts of the country, but he is also going to face important questions about offensive against the extremist group and the Iran ian role in training and advising the Shiite militias. "In my opinion, arming Iraqi forces is not an essential issue to the United States , what is more important for the U.S. is producing common U.S.-Iraqi strategy of about how to fight Daash (IS militant group)

 Up to 62 Islamic State (IS) militants and 48 security members were killed on Saturday in U.S.-led coalition air strikes, four suicide bomb attacks and clashes with Iraq i security forces, security sources said. In Iraq's western province of Anbar, three suicide bombers drove their booby-trapped vehicles into bases of Iraqi federal police and detonated them in Kilo 70 area in west of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, leaving some 43 policemen killed and destroying five police vehicles, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a military base and blew it up in Tal Msheheidah area, just east of Ramadi, killing five security members and wounding 11 others, along with destroying two military vehicles, the source said. Separately, U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out air strikes on IS positions in the desert area in north of Ramadi, leaving at least 53 IS m

By Mark Mazzetti When President Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria ’s embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the C.I.A. has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . Since then, the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the C.I.A takes the lead in training the rebels on AK-47 assault rifles and tank-destroying missiles. The support for the Syrian rebels is only the latest chapter in the decadeslong relationship between the spy services of Saudi Arabia and the United States, an alliance that has endured through the Iran-contra scand

Defense Secretary Carter announces plans to deploy 101st Airborne Division in latest escalation of war. By Adam Johnson In an op-ed in Politico and in an appearance at Davos World Economic Forum Friday morning, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the U.S. will deploy "boots on the ground" in Iraq to help local forces fight the so-called Islamic State. The policy shift is a turnaround from the Obama's White House's previous stance of not deploying combat troops in Iraq and one sure to shape the foreign policy debate in the 2016 election. Though the U.S. military presence in Iraq has been steadily growing over the past year-and-a-half this marks the first time an express acknowledgment of ground troops has been made by a senior official. The first of such deployments will, according to Sec. Carter, be the 101st Airborne Division "Soldiers in the storied 101st Airborne Division will soon deploy to Iraq to join the fight against ISIL," Carter wrote in Po

An analysis of the dangers posed when Western governments and the Muslim establishment limit Muslim political activism. Muslims gather in Paris in September 2014 to pay a tribute to Herve Goudel, a mountain guide beheaded by fighters affiliated to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [YOAN VALAT/EPA] Less than 2 percent of all politically motivated acts of violence committed in Europe are carried out by Muslims . Yet, the media narrative of a crisis with "radical Islam" and "radicalised Muslims" reaches new heights after each major attack in a Western country. Meanwhile, rational analysis of what constitutes Muslim "radicalism" fails to inform public discourse, which is instead driven largely by sloppy presuppositions connecting religiosity or conservatism to a propensity for violence - despite any credible evidence linking the two. Promoted by networks of well-funded Islamophobic hate groups , the hazy logic underlying this understanding of extremis

Some 20,000 Afghan Shia fighters said to be fighting alongside Iran to help save government of Syrian President Assad. Iranian media says at least 200 Afghan Shia fighters have died in the Syrian war since 2013 [Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters] Iran is recruiting Afghan Shia fighters in their tens of thousands to step up the Islamic Republic's efforts in the Syrian war, offering them salaries to join the fight to save the government of President Bashar al-Assad. As the conflict enters its fifth year, Iranian media has said that there are some 20,000 fighters in the Fatemiyon division, which is made up of both naturalised Afghans who lived in Iran and those who have travelled from Afghanistan. "Five days ago, four Afghan Shia fighters were captured in southern rural Aleppo. In addition to Iranian fighters, there are also militia fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, and recently China," Anas al-Abdah, the secretary of the opposition Syrian Coalition's political committee, t

In this episode of UpFront, Mehdi Hasan speaks to the renowned American academic Noam Chomsky about his public spat with the Turkish president, the war against ISIL and Russia's annexation of Crimea. We also look at the ramifications of the Saudi Arabia-Iran feud, and debate the state of Egypt five years after the Arab Spring. Headliner: Noam Chomsky on ISIL, Turkey and Ukraine Noam Chomsky has been described as "arguably the most important intellectual alive". And as one of the world's most celebrated academics, he has published more than 100 books and is a leading critic on United States foreign policy. In the first of a special two-part interview, Chomsky sits down with Mehdi Hasan to discuss the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, Ukraine and Turkey. Chomsky and other "so-called intellectuals" were recently criticised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for supporting Kurdish separatists. The author and activist, who has accused the Turkish