ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (10:15 P.M.) - Jaysh Al-Islam (Army of Islam) and their Islamist allies are facing complete defeat in the East Ghouta region of rural Damascus, as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies continue their onslaught near the Syrian capital. Most recently, Jaysh Al-Islam lost two imperative hilltop villages in the northern part of the East Ghouta, leaving them completely exposed at Douma's eastern flank. The two hilltop villages captured by the Syrian Armed Forces in the East Ghouta were Tal Sawwan and Tal Kurdi; these sites are located directly north of the strategic town of Al-Reyhan. With Douma exposed, the Syrian Arab Army's 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard will likely offer the Islamist rebels one last chance to surrender; if rejected, they will storm the town from two different flanks.

(TASS) Moscow strongly condemns a chemical attack against civilians in Aleppo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Monday. The ministry reports that on Sunday terrorists shelled Hamdaniya and Dahiyet al-Assad districts in western Aleppo using self-made shells stuffed with chemical agents. "At least 35 people were poisoned, many of them were hospitalized," the ministry said. "This incident in which terrorists used toxic agents against civilians is unfortunately not an isolated one," the commentary said. "Earlier, gunmen applied similar chemical weapons in 2013 in East Ghouta, in 2013 not far from the settlement of Khan al-Assal at Aleppo, in 2015 in the settlement of Marea in the same province and also in the summer of 2016 when the Salah-Eddin neighborhood of Aleppo was shelled," the diplomat said in the commentary. "We consider it our duty to remind those, who as they themselves maintain have influence on armed

Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 39:09 | Size: 35.85M In this week's installment of the Al-Masdar Podcast, Brad Blankenship is joined with Dr. Max Abrahms to discuss his structural model of terrorism, one that is radically different from our basic intuitions. Also joining us is Mojtaba Masood, providing his experience and insights into the discussion. Dr. Abrahms is an assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University. Dr. Abrahms is a member at the Council on Foreign Relations and works for The Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. Mr. Masood is a London-based documentary filmmaker and political analyst. You can view Mr. Masood's documentary here .

(TASS) At least 40 ceasefire violations by armed groups have been registered in the past 24 hours in Syria, including 20 breaches in the region of Aleppo, 15 ― in the Damascus province, and five ― in the Latakia province, the Russian Center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria said in its daily news bulletin posted on the Russian Defense Ministry’s official website on Saturday. "Armed groups, which have announced joining the regime of cessation of hostilities, delivered fire from mortars and small arms in the Damascus province ― on the populated localities of Harasta, Jobar, Bala al-Kadima, Douma, and the positions of government forces on Abu Ali mountain in the Latakia province. At 1:15pm, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the city of Damascus came under mortar fire, no one was hurt," the document says. In the Latakia province, militants shelled the village of Jourin and used an unmanned aerial vehicle with an explosive device that left a civilian wounde

By John Pilger TJC: Please tell us about your new film, The Coming War on China . JP: The Coming War on China is my 60th film and perhaps one of the most urgent. It continues the theme of illuminating the imposition of great power behind a facade of propaganda as news. In 2011, President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’ of US forces: almost two-thirds of American naval power would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific by 2020. The undeclared rationale for this was the ‘threat’ from China, by some measure now the greatest economic power. The Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, says US policy is to confront those ‘who see America’s dominance and want to take that away from us’. The film examines power in both countries and how nuclear weapons, in American eyes, are the bedrock of its dominance. In its first ‘chapter’, the film reveals how most of the population of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific were unwittingly made into nuclear guinea pigs in a programme whose secrets –

In October a series of reports appeared in The Washington Post and other US media about expected supplies of various modern weapon systems to the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ in Syria. The reports argued that Washington was considering the new plan for Syria that included massive supplies of weapons that had to allow the oppositioneers to defend themselves from the Russian and Syrian air power and artillery. This fact was described as an indication of Washnigton’s skepticism about the prospects of so-called ‘peaceful solution’ in the country. Nonetheless, it was neither approved nor denied, according to the media. The secret CIA program of training and arming ‘moderate terrorists’ has been the core of American strategy, aiming to overthrow Assad and set a puppet government in Syria, since the start of the war. Nonetheless, the Obama administration is likely set to postponed the resumption and expansion of this program and to pass the need to make a decision to next president. The US

By Pepe Escobar Your honors, in this venue I announce my separation from the United States… both in military and economics also». Thus Philippines President Rodrigo «The Punisher» Duterte unleashed a geopolitical earthquake encompassing Eurasia and reverberating all across the Pacific Ocean. And talk about choosing his venue with aplomb; right in the heart of the Rising Dragon, no less. Capping his state visit to Beijing, Duterte then coined the mantra – pregnant with overtones - that will keep ringing all across the global South; «America has lost». And if that was not enough, he announced a new alliance – Philippines, China and Russia – is about to emerge; «there are three of us against the world». Predictably, the Beltway establishment in the «indispensable nation» went bananas, reacting as «puzzled» or in outright anger, dispersing the usual expletives on the «crude populist», «unhinged leader» . The bottom line is that it takes a lot of balls for the leader of a poor, developing c

The Russian Armed Forces received the new advanced Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile system, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov has announced. “Two Buk-M2 batteries and one Buk-M3 battery are in the interests of the Land and Airborne Forces,” Borisov said in a statement . The newest Russian 9K317M Buk-M3 medium-range surface-to-air missile system (NATO reporting name: SA-17 Grizzly) entered in service in 2015. The new type of missile used by the launcher is more compact than the previous versions. This allows Buk-M3 to carry a payload of six instead of four missiles. The new missile also outclasses previous models in technical characteristics. The missile can destroy any type of airborne target in existence, can be used against naval and ground targets and it is resistant to electronic.