ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

ALMOST A YEAR and a half into Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen, the humanitarian toll has become so extensive that the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of donating entire morgue units to Yemeni hospitals. “The hospitals were not able to cope,” said Rima Kamal, a Yemen-based spokesperson for the Red Cross. “You could have more than 20 dead people brought into one hospital on one single day. The morgue capacity at a regular hospital is not equipped to handle this influx of dead bodies.” “At times several dead bodies had to be stored on one shelf to avoid further decomposition,” Kamal continued. “The situation was not sustainable.” Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen in March 2015, after Houthi rebels took control of the capital and forced Yemen’s Saudi-backed leader, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, into exile. The United Nations has since attributed the majority of the war’s 6,500 deaths to the Saudi coalition, which the U.S. and U.K. have re

Hama, Syria (12:40 A.M.) – The jihadist rebels of Jund Al-Aqsa (Al-Qaeda franchise), alongside their allies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), reportedly captured the village of Khattab in northern Hama after a short battle with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). According to a military source in the province, the jihadist rebels quickly advanced south of Taybat Al-Imam to the nearby village of Khirbat Al-Hujamah, where they were once again able to overwhelm the Syrian Armed Forces. Following the capture of Khattab, Jund Al-Aqsa and their allies moved onto the key town of Khattab, where they were confronted by a small unit of Syrian Arab Army soldiers at the northern flank. Not long after the preliminary firefights at the northern flank of the town, the Syrian Armed Forces withdrew their units to the south in order to avoid being overrun by Jund Al-Aqsa and their allies. The jihadist rebels are now within 5 km of Hama City after cutting off the Mhardeh-Hama Road, which was a vital supply rout

Damascus, Syria (2:02 A.M.) – Units from the Syrian Army’s elite Republican Guard continued their advance in Eastern Ghouta capturing a 1 km squared territory from Hawsh Al-Farah in the direction of Tal Sawwan following intense clashes with the Saudi-sponsored Jaish Al-Islam jihadist group. Clashes are ongoing as the Syrian Armed Forces look to fortidy their positions in the Carton Factory that lies southwest of the horse farms. The recent military developments in the northern axis of Eastern Ghouta place the Syrian Army on the verge of cutting off the Islamist stronghold of Tal Kurdi from Al-Rayhan and Douma. As of now, only a few makeshift farm roads connect the two regions. Should the Syrian Armed Forces capture Tal Kurdi in the coming days or weeks, the would alleviate much of the danger from Adra city while ensuring the safety of the Damascus-Homs highway.

By Finian Cunningham This week Ukraine marks 25 years of independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and American news channel CNN was only too willing to lend an audacious rewriting of history to sanitize current conflict in that country. A TV newscast on Wednesday, featuring CNN anchorwoman Rosemary Church, ran the following headline: «Ukraine still fighting for independence from Moscow». The channel then cut to a report by its correspondent Phil Black from eastern Ukraine purporting to show Kiev-controlled armed forces coming under heavy gun and artillery fire from «Russian-backed separatists». Viewers were told that the separatists launched their attacks against Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) two years ago in August 2014. Between whistling bullets, the intrepid CNN reporter also informed viewers, without verification, that the Russian army was amassing troops on its side of the border with Ukraine. This absurd reduction of history provides a much-needed makeover for

TURKEY - AUGUST 24 : An Infographic with the title "Operation Euphrates Shield", created on August 24, 2016 in Ankara, Turkey. The sources said that the operation, called Euphrates Shield, is aimed at clearing terrorist groups from the Turkish border region, tightening border security, and supporting Syrias territorial integrity. (Photo by Ahmet Tamkoc/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) The Asayish (Kurdish police) began its aggression against the pro-government militia force the National Defense Force (NDF) on 16th of August when it launched an RPG attack at a checkpoint without provocation. This was not the first provocation the Asayish have committed against the NDF in Hasakah in Syria’s northeast. This has been a long ongoing issue for well over a year with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) doing very little to control the situation. In fact the YPG had encouraged the Asayish’ aggression against government forces in Hasakah.What transpired were on and off battle

The situation in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo has taken a dramatic turn as government troops and rebel forces managed to seize each other’s supply route, all within two weeks. These supply lines have otherwise been in place since 2013. Aleppo has been dubbed ‘the mother of all battles’ with good reason – some 5,000 to 12,000 fighters were lined up by Jaish al-Fateh and Fatah Halab for the southwestern Aleppo offensive, completely overwhelming the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) manpower. Although Islamist factions have definitively broken through the SAA’s defensive line in southwestern Aleppo, they are yet to secure a road safe enough for them to reach insurgents in eastern Aleppo. However, it is indeed possible for Islamist rebels to sneak into eastern Aleppo districts through tunnels and makeshift doorways in the Ramouseh district which is entirely under Jaish al-Fateh and Fatah Halab control. Meanwhile, the SAA has established a supply road along the Castello-Bani Zaid axis in northe

By Pepe Escobar So Turkish President, a.k.a. Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan is about to make a high-profile visit to Tehran – the date has not yet been set - to essentially kick start the ATM (Ankara-Tehran-Moscow) coalition in Syria. Anyone as much as hinting at such a massive geopolitical tectonic shift a few weeks ago would be branded a madman. So how did the impossible happen? A major strategic game-changer – Russia using an airfield in Iran to send bombers against jihadis in Syria – had already taken place, with its aftermath spectacularly misreported by the usual, clueless US corporate media suspects. Then, there’s what Turkey’s Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, said last Saturday in Istanbul: “The most important priority for us is to stop the bloodshed [in Syria] as soon as possible.” The rest are irrelevant “details.” Yildirim added Ankara now agrees with Moscow that Bashar al-Assad “could” – and that’s the operative word – stay in power during a political transition (although