ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Brussels suicide bombers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power stations, Dernier Heure newspaper reported. The newspaper exclusively reported that the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam accelerated the plans of the terrorists. The brothers planted a hidden camera in front of the home of the director of the Belgian nuclear research program, the paper said.  Evidence obtained by the authorities shows that the same terrorist cell was behind the Paris attacks in November that killed over 130 people and this week’s Brussels bombings, which claimed the lives of 31 people and injured over 270, the paper wrote.  The footage with “dozens of hours” of the movements of Belgium’s nuclear boss was seized during an anti-terrorist raid in the apartment of another suspect belonging to the same terror cell, Mohammed Bakkali. READ 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan has suggested that Europe was dancing in a minefield by directly or indirectly supporting terror groups, while also stating Europe needed to look at its own record before telling Turkey what to do on migrants. Delivering a speech in the western province of anakkale, where he attended ceremonies to mark Martyrs Day and the commemoration of the Gallipoli naval victory during World War I on March 18, Erdoan recalled Brussels has been hosting a EU-Turkey summit where European Union leaders were trying to convince Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu to help end Europes migration crisis in return for financial and political concessions.The Belgian government allowed supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to pitch tents before the Turkey-EU summit in Brussels near the EU council building, Erdoan said.These [countries] are not honest, not sincere and they are acing ambivalently, Erdoan said. Whom are you deceiving? Be honest, be s

Turkish police have detained dozens of ISIS-connected suspects, among them 24 under the age of 18, who are being trained to operate in Syria and Iraq as Islamic State’s militants. The Istanbul Anti-Terror Directorate has arrested dozens of foreigners in one of the districts of Turkey's largest city. Those detained are suspected of getting ready to transfer to areas of Syria in Iraq under Islamic State's control, the Turkish daily Vatan reports . Detectives targeted some 18 homes in Istanbul's eastern Pendik district. Special operations teams supported by a helicopter simultaneously raided all the suspicious addresses. The raids were part of the investigation into the massive terror attack that killed over 100 people in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on October 10. Altogether 53 people have been detained, including 24 minors, all of them from the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The minors were brought to the Pendik Children's Bureau Headquarters, wh

Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) has been operating training camps for attacks on the West, providing longer training and more autonomy to its recruits, AP reported, citing European and Iraqi intelligence officers as well as a French lawmaker. Terror cells have been reportedly set up all across Europe and their main goal is to carry out as many attacks as possible, not just to kill as many people as possible – all in order to force European authorities to spend more money, the report said. Leaders of these terrorist cells appear to be French-speaking individuals with links to North Africa, France and Belgium, according to a European security official who talked to AP on condition of anonymity. They are usually tasked with creating new attack strategies in Europe, he said. When IS claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks on Brussels, the extremist group mentioned a“secret cell of soldiers” that was sent to Brussels. A man attends a memorial gathering near the old stock exc

Brussels suicide bombers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power stations, Dernier Heure newspaper reported. The newspaper exclusively reported that the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam accelerated the plans of the terrorists. The brothers planted a hidden camera in front of the home of the director of the Belgian nuclear research program, the paper said. Evidence obtained by the authorities shows that the same terrorist cell was behind the Paris attacks in November that killed over 130 people and this week’s Brussels bombings, which claimed the lives of 31 people and injured over 270, the paper wrote. Les frères #ElBakraoui visaient nos centrales nucléaires ! https://t.co/OjMSqRVnxv #Belgique #Bruxelles pic.twitter.com/wQeVHF97Yn — DH.be (@ladh) March 24, 2016 The footage with “dozens of hours” of the movements of Belgium's nuclear boss was seized during an anti-terrorist raid in the apartment of another suspect belonging to the same

According to the Russian news agency “TASS,” the so-called ISIS has claimed the responsibility for the attacks that took place today in the Belgian capital, Brussels, and led to the fall of dozens of dead and wounded. The TASS news agency reported: “The ISIS claimed Brussels bombings,” noting that “Supporters of the [ISIS} have threatened to carry out more attacks in Europe.” The ISIS supporters praised the bombings on social media, according to Reuters.

PARIS: French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday that some 800,000 migrants are in Libya hoping to cross to Europe. Le Drian said in an interview with Europe 1 radio that "hundreds of thousands" of migrants were in Libya, ha ving fled conflict and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere, adding that the figure of 800,000 was "about right". In 2015 more than a million migrants entered Europe, about half of them Syrians, with Germany shouldering most of the burden. More than 100,000 crossed the Mediterranean Sea in the first two months of 2016 alone, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And after a controversial deal between Turkey and the European Union came into force this week, aiming to cut off the migrant sea route between Turkey and Greece, there are fears more will attempt the even more dangerous Libya-Italy route. The biggest movement of people on the continent since World War II has strained ties in Europe,

BEIRUT: ISIS fighters killed 26 Syrian soldiers on Monday west of Palmyra, a monitoring group said, after days of advances by government forces backed by Syrian and Russian air cover. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the Syrian army would soon recapture Palmyra from ISIS, which has held the desert city for nearly a year. Palmyra has both symbolic and military value as the site of ancient Roman-era ruins – mostly destroyed by the ultra-hard line Islamist group – and because of its location on a highway linking mainly government-held western Syria to ISIS's eastern stronghold. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting took place about 4 kilometers (2 miles) west of Palmyra. It was not possible to independently verify the death toll. Syria's state news agency SANA said the army and allied forces, backed by the Syrian air force, carried out "concentrated operations" against ISIS around Palmyra and the ISIS-held town of a