ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Abu Dujana al Hindi is shown at left, next to Nasser Muthanna, who now refers to himself as “Abu Muthanna al Yemeni” appeared in an ISIL Jihad recruitment video. Now, Shia organizations are recruiting fighters to defend Shia holy sites against ISIL attack. (IraqiNews.com) The conflict between Iraq’s government and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has begun to spread concerns throughout the region, particularly in India. Last week, the country was concerned over the unknown whereabouts of 40 Indian construction workers. The workers were in a territory that had been captured by the terrorist group ISIS. Now, new concerns have emerged as India’s largest Shia organization began to recruit volunteers to defend Shia holy shrines in Iraq that may soon fall into the hands of ISIS. It is estimated that nearly 30,000 Indian Shia Muslims have already signed up to fight and applied for visas to fly into Iraq. Various Indian Shia Muslim organizations are hoping that recruitment can

A local source in Mosul said on Sunday, that the number of foreign fighters in the ranks of the so-called ISIS has become very small and their absence seemed clearly visible. The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “The recent decision of the ISIS gangs to reduce the foreign fighters’ salaries in half, had left a significant impact, which led to the escape of a number of them from the organization.” The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The flow of foreign fighters coming from the city of Raqqa, the headquarters of ISIS in Syria, has become very little or non-existent due to reduced salaries.”

Islamic State has released a new 17-minute video featuring the Paris attackers apparently participating in gruesome murders somewhere in an undisclosed desert location before they infiltrated the EU and subsequently conducted attacks in the French capital. While the video is yet to be authenticated, the footage uploaded to Islamic State’s official Telegram messaging service account shows Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) extremists wearing camouflaged outfits, sending out chilling warnings to EU heads of state for their countries’ actions in the Middle East. The new video shows four Belgians, three French citizens and two Iraqis believed to be responsible for the attacks in Paris. The video opens with the message of what is said to be the final words of the attackers, who were mobilized to carry out terror acts in France. The graphic video features beheadings and a firing squad execution, in which the attackers take part. Bilal Hadfi, who was killed during the Paris attacks is a

The war in Syria is an unparalleled crisis. It has gone far beyond an internal political struggle, and is marked by a complex array of forces that the U.S. Empire hopes to command: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and more.

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