ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Different jihadi groups fighting the Syrian government have been increasingly recruiting children soldiers as the conflict sweeps the war-torn country for the sixth year. Since the Al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, Jabhet al-Nusra, established itself in Syria in January 2012, child recruitment has become more widely practiced, and even got wider and more organized with the emergence of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2013. The two ultraconservative groups created training camps for children where they are brainwashed and instilled with Takfiri ideology to become jihadi fighters and suicide bombers. The process significantly increased with the Nusra-led Jaish al-Fateh taking over the northwestern province of Idlib in May 2015. Analysts identify the notorious Saudi cleric Abdullah al-Muhesini as the godfather of recruiting children soldiers in rebel-held territories, especially Idlib. In 2013, al-Muhesini launched his wide-scale recruiting campaign in Idlib (which later expanded to

Aleppo, Syria (12:10 P.M.) - The Russian Marines have replaced the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) along the Castillo Highway in northern Aleppo after the ceasefire agreement took effect last night. Initially, a member of the Syrian Arab Army's "Tiger Forces" told Al-Masdar News that their units did not receive any instructions regarding their withdrawal from the Castillo Highway. However, on Monday, the Syrian Arab Army's High Command instructed the Tiger Forces to withdraw 1km north of the Castillo Highway in order to allow the Russian Marines to facilitate a humanitarian corridor along this roadway.

If the truce holds for a week, the US and Russia will form an unprecedented military partnership that will control airstrikes targeting Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra Syrian President Bashar al-Assad walking in a damaged Damascus suburb ahead of morning Eid Al-Adha prayers just hours ahead of the start of a ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia. AP A ceasefire began at sunset aimed at ending the five-year long civil war in Syria that has killed over a quarter of a million Syrians and forced five million more to flee the country. Under an agreement between the US and Russia, the initial truce will last seven days, during which time UN convoys will bring aid to besieged districts and Syrian government bombing of civilian areas will stop. The Syrian army said a seven-day “calm” would be applied across Syria from 7pm on Monday, but it reserved the right to respond decisively “using all forms of fire to any violation by the arm

Quneitra, Syria (12:47 A.M.) – Hours after the massive offensive Ahrar Al-Sham and Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fath Al-Shami announced in Quneitra province in southern Syria, the Syrian Army was able to fully repel the jihadist offensive. Aside from the Al-Qaba’ hill, the offensive was an abysmal failure as the assault on the strategic Unit 4 Hill, otherwise known as Tarinja Unit Hill, did not fruit any gains while costing dozens of lives and several armored vehicles. The forces officially involved in this offensive are JFS, Ahrar Al-Sham, and Bait Al-Maqdis who are very similar to Jund Al-Aqsa due to their links to the ISIS-backed faction of Jaish Khaled Ibn Al-Walid.

SEN. RAND PAUL’S expression of opposition to a $1.1 billion U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia — which has been brutally bombing civilian targets in Yemen using U.S.-made weapons for more than a year now — alarmed CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday afternoon. Blitzer’s concern: That stopping the sale could result in fewer jobs for arms manufacturers. “So for you this is a moral issue,” he told Paul during the Kentucky Republican’s appearance on CNN. “Because you know, there’s a lot of jobs at stake. Certainly if a lot of these defense contractors stop selling war planes, other sophisticated equipment to Saudi Arabia, there’s going to be a significant loss of jobs, of revenue here in the United States. That’s secondary from your standpoint?” Paul stayed on message. “Well not only is it a moral question, its a constitutional question,” Paul said. “Our founding fathers very directly and specifically did not give the president the power to go to war. They gave it to Congress. So Congress n

Patrick Cockburn interviews an Isis militant who claims the movement will rise again in North Africa, that Turkey turned a blind eye to shipments of weapons across the border and that Isis fighters are still present in Jarabulus By Patrick Cockburn  Isis will flourish and survive even if it is defeated in the present battle for Syria and Iraq an Isis militant has told The Independent. In an exclusive interview, Faraj, a 30-year-old veteran fighter from north east Syria, says that “when we say that the Islamic State [Isis] is everlasting and expanding, it is not a mere poetic or propaganda phrase”. He says the group intends to rebuild its strength in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, adding that “Isis has sleeper agents all over the world and their numbers are increasing”. In his account of his life in Isis, Faraj makes plain that only a year after the caliphate was declared in the wake of the capture of Mosul in 2014, its leaders could foresee that it might be over

By Moon Of Alabama Russia and the U.S. agreed to some new Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) in Syria. The general negative points: This CoH, like the first one in February, comes at a moment where the Syrian government forces have an advantage in the field and are on the verge of renewed offensives. It gives the opposition the time to reorganize and rearm. It severely restricts Syrian sovereignty. The general positive points: The Syrian government lacks the capacity for a fully military solution of the conflict. The agreement is a possible path to a political solution. It gives the government time to rebuild its army and to issue and train on new equipment. It has enough flexibility to allow for local escalation when and where needed. On the agreement itself. The Syrian government has, according to the Russians, agreed to it. The parties agreed to keep many details secret to prevent other actors from spoiling it. The agreement will start on sundown of September 12 The timeline, as

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested he and the US are ready to drive so-called Islamic State (IS) from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. Mr Erdogan said US President Barack Obama floated the idea of joint action against the militants when they met at the G20 summit in China. He said Turkey would have "no problem" with such action. Last month Turkey launched an operation inside Syria, targeting both IS and Kurdish rebels. The US State Department would not confirm the details of Mr Erdogan's statement, but an official said it was important that "local forces" were involved in the fight to deliver "a lasting defeat" to IS. "The actions that Turkey is currently taking along its border with Syria, with US support, is having the important effect of isolating Raqqa," the official said. "That is a critical step in our ultimate objective to liberate Raqqa from Isil (IS) control." Turkish-backed militia have driven IS from