ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

A shocking video released by Islamic State shows two French boys brutally murdering two pro-government Syrians in Aleppo. The footage, partially in French and titled ‘Sur les traces de mon pere’ (‘In the footsteps of my father’), features two French teenagers named ‘Abu Musa’ab’ and ‘Abu Qaqa’a’. The boys are allegedly brothers, brought to Syria with their father, who was later killed in fighting. The two men murdered in the video were supposedly found guilty of espionage, Islamic State's (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) Telegram account stated. In the video, two French teenagers are shown living the IS ‘life’, and being raised as jihadists. They fire at posters of world leaders, including French President Francois Hollande. Afterwards, they are shown executing two unarmed Syrian men, claiming that one of them is a spy for the Nusayri Army (Alawites, the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad), and the other a soldier of the Nusayri Army. Children have often become a frightening tool of

BEIRUT: Fighting raging between rival Islamist rebel factions to control a key opposition stronghold near Damascus since late last month has killed more than 300 fighters, activists said Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes in Eastern Ghouta pitted the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam faction, which has been taking part in peace talks in Geneva, against the Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Fustat groups, both led by Nusra Front, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate. "More than 300 fighters have been killed as Islamist rebel factions battle for influence in the Eastern Ghouta," since April 28, Observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman said. He said most of the rebels killed belonged to Jaish al-Islam or Nusra. Abdel-Rahman said the clashes broke out after several attacks launched by Faylaq al-Rahman on positions held by Jaish al-Islam in Eastern Ghouta, a belt of countryside and small towns east of the capital that seen heavy fighting throughout Syria's 5-year-old

The Obama administration poked Russia in the eye again by activating a missile defense site in Romania while building up NATO forces on Russia’s borders, acts that could escalate toward nuclear war, notes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall If the United States ever ends up stumbling into a major conventional or nuclear war with Russia, the culprit will likely be two military boondoggles that refused to die when their primary mission ended with the demise of the Soviet Union: NATO and the U.S. anti-ballistic missile (ABM) program. The “military-industrial complex” that reaps hundreds of billions of dollars annually from support of those programs got a major boost this week when NATO established its first major missile defense site at an air base in Romania, with plans to build a second installation in Poland by 2018. President Barack Obama meets with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Regnum Carya Resort in Antalya, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 15, 20

VIDEO: Syria Captures Turkish Aid Cargo Heading to Daesh in IraqSyrian intelligence forces say that they have captured a haul of medical supplies near Aleppo that came from Turkey and was destined for Daesh terrorists in the Iraqi city of Mosul. In a video released by Russia's RT television network on Friday, Hussein al-Omar, a colonel in Syria’s Military Intelligence Directorate, said that the lorry, loaded with some 25 tons of medicine and hospital supplies, including a number of dialysis machines, had entered Syria from Turkey’s Bab al-Hawa international border crossing, located on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey. He added that the lorry was planned to reach Mosul, Daesh's de facto capital in Iraq, through the towns of Afrin, A'zaz, and Manbij in Aleppo province. According to Omar, the lorry, loaded in Turkey, bore a Syrian number plate and was driven by two militants from al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front terrorist group, who had received the cargo in the Bab a

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group is preventing civilians from leaving the embattled western Iraqi city of Fallujah, with its snipers targeting the humanitarian corridors established by Iraqi security forces. Colonel Steve Warren, A US spokesman for the so-called anti-Daesh forces said on Friday that shooters from the extremist network are stopping dwellers of Fallujah, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad, from escaping the city amid acute shortage of basic commodities and medicine. “We know that the Iraqis have attempted on several occasions to open up humanitarian corridors to allow some of those civilians to come out,” Warren said in a video call from Baghdad. “Those have met with generally not much success. ISIL (Daesh) has done things like set up snipers to cover down on those corridors, to kill people as they’re trying to get out. So that has really discouraged their use,” he added. The US-led alliance has been mounting air raids against so-call

More than 100 al-Nusra Front militants have crossed turkey border and arrived in the Northern Province of Aleppo to join their comrades in the fight against the Syrian people, local sources said on Thursday. According to the residents of Kafar Hamra village in Aleppo, the terrorists entered the region through the bordering areas with Turkey. Also, informed sources said yesterday that tens of other terrorists crossed the Turkish border with Syria's Northern province of Aleppo to join their al-Nusra Front comrades. "A 70-member-group of terrorists, trained and supplied in Turkey, have entered Anadan in the territories of Northern Aleppo in groups to join the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front," Syria's Peace Coordination Center in Hmeimim said, adding, "The fresh terrorists have brought with themselves three vehicles loaded with ammunition and weapons." "Al-Nusra Front's terrorists' artillery units continued to shell two neighborhoods of Sheikh Ma

Syrian Army Repels Terrorists’ Attacks in Northwestern of Hama City The Syrian forces have thwarted the terrorists’ attacks on the army military posts in the direction of Khirbet al-Naqous village, some 90 km northwest of Hama city, a military source told Syrian Arab News Agency. The source added that a number of the terrorists were killed and a car loaded with ammunition and weapons and 3 vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns belonging to them were destroyed during the clashes. On Wednesday, local sources confirmed that around 100 terrorists from Jabaht al-Nusra crossed the Turkish border into Kafar Hamra village in northern Aleppo, along with a number of trucks that were transporting handmade ammunition with chlorine gas-producing toxic substances. VIDEO

The Syrian army forces backed by their allies have managed to cut off the terrorists' route to al-Sha'er oil and gas field in the Central province of Homs. The Syrian army forces launched a surprise attack on ISIS terrorists in the Northeastern part of Homs province and cut off their path linking the strategic town of Aqirabat in the Eastern parts of Hama to al-Shae'r oil field. Also, the army troops and popular forces made further advances in the Southeastern parts of al-Sha'er paving the ground for retaking the oil field. Aqirabat is the strategic stronghold of terrorists in Eastern Hama and hosts a large number of ISIL leaders' families. In a relevant development in the region, the Syrian army forces and their allies seized back control over several strategic points, including a strategic hilltop, in Homs following heavy clashes with ISIS terrorists. The Syrian army troops and National Defense Forces (NDF) took full control over Tal Sawwan in Homs province which