ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Syrian Army has regained control of large territories in Latakia province with support from the Russian Air Force, with terrorists now redeploying forces to eastern parts of the country, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, citing Syrian opposition sources. Supported by Russian war planes, Syrian government troops have been successful in defeating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants in Latakia province. In the past 24 hours, more than 92 square kilometers (35 square miles) of territories were regained from terrorist groups. The Syrian Army has regained control over 28 towns, including the strategically important town of Rabia in Latakia. Having lost their advantage in western parts of the country, IS command has now decided to concentrate its forces on trying to seize the city of Deir ez-Zor, the largest city in the eastern part of Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Up to 2,000 heavily armed militants have been redeployed by IS to the region, the m

Syrian regime forces on Sunday overran the last major rebel-held town in the coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, state television and a monitoring group reported. Citing a military source, state television said Syria 's "armed forces, in coordination with the popular defence [militia], seized control of the town of Rabiya." The northwestern town had been held by the opposition since 2012 and was controlled by a range of rebel groups including some made up of Syrian Turkmen, as well as the Al-Nusra Front , an al Qaeda affiliate. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict in Syria, Rabiya fell on Sunday after a steady regime advance that left the town surrounded. "In the past 48 hours, regime forces surrounded the town from three sides – the south, west, and north – by capturing 20 villages," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Abdel Rahman said senior Russian milita

Over 200,000 South Sudanese civilians are sheltering inside U.N. camps from civil war, the United Nations said Monday, a bleak barometer of ongoing conflict despite peace efforts. The figures, among the highest in over two years of civil war and similar to numbers recorded in August 2015 during some of the heaviest battles, come despite political efforts to implement a peace deal inked on paper six months ago. More than 201,000 civilians are crammed inside squalid camps in six towns across the country, including the capital Juba, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission (UNMISS). Over 122,000 are in the camp in Bentiu alone, a former key oil town in the northern Unity region where fighting has been concentrated. The continued rise in the number of people fleeing violence offers a clear indication that conditions continue to worsen in the poverty-stricken nation. In October, U.N.-backed experts warned of a “concrete risk of famine” in parts of Unity if fighting continues, with tens

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