ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The ISIS launched one of its fiercest assaults yet on the besieged Syrian city. BEIRUT: The ISIS on Saturday launched one of its fiercest assaults yet on the besieged Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, leaving more than 30 regime fighters and jihadists dead. The brutal attack -- on a day that saw many outbreaks of violence across Syria -- came as the political opposition said it "supported" upcoming peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana. The negotiations will attempt to bring an end to the nearly six-year war by building on a fragile truce agreement. But ISIS is excluded from the deal, brokered by rebel backer Turkey and regime ally Russia. Unleashing a wave of suicide attacks, rockets, and tunnel bombs, ISIS killed at least 12 government forces and two civilians in Deir Ezzor, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The British-based monitoring group said 20 jihadists were killed in fierce air raids by Syrian and allied warplanes on the city, where around 200,000...

By Patrick Cockburn I read the text of the dossier on Donald Trump’s alleged dirty dealings with a scepticism that soon turned into complete disbelief. The memo has all the hallmarks of such fabrications, which is too much detail – and that detail largely uncheckable – and too many names of important people placed there to impress the reader with the sheer quantity and quality of information. I was correspondent in Moscow in the 1980s and again during the first years in power of Vladimir Putin . Every so often, people would tell me intriguing facts about the dark doings of the Kremlin and its complicity in various crimes, such as the infamous apartment block bombings in 1999. But my heart used to sink when the informant claimed to know too much and did not see that what they were saying contained a fatal contradiction: Putin and his people were pictured as unscrupulous and violent people, but at the same time they were childishly incapable of keeping a secret damaging to themselves. T...

By Doina Chiacu CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday had a stern parting message for Republican Donald Trump days before he assumes the U.S. presidency, cautioning him against loosening sanctions on Russia and warning him to watch what he says. Brennan rebuked the president-elect for comparing U.S. intelligence practices to Nazi Germany in comments that laid bare the friction between Trump and the intelligence community he has criticized and is on the verge of commanding. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Brennan questioned the message sent to the world if the president-elect broadcasts that he does not have confidence in the United States' own intelligence agencies. "What I do find outrageous is equating intelligence community with Nazi Germany," Brennan said. "I do take great umbrage at that." His comments followed a tumultuous week of finger-pointing between Trump and intelligence agency leaders over an unsubstantiated r...

The Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces have launched coordinated attacks on positions of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in the area of al-Bab city, making the Turkish Air Force to decrease and even completely stop its combat sorties. Photo: Sputnik / Maksim Blinov The Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces have started to carry out airstrikes on positions of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in the area of al-Bab city, located in northern Aleppo, making the Turkish Air Force to stop its operation in the region, the Alquds Alarabi newspaper reported, citing an unnamed Syrian military source. According to the newspaper’s source, Syrian and Russian fighter jets have launched coordinated attacks on IS positions in the terrorist-held town of al-Bab. The joint operations made the Turkish Air Force to decrease and even completely stop its combat sorties in some areas of northern Syria. The newspaper specified that helicopters of the Syrian Air Force , ...

According to the Spanish authorities, among the 10,000-12,000 pieces of weapons, seized earlier this week, there are some, capable to shoot down aircraft. Spanish police seized 10,000-12,000 pieces of weapons, intended for sale to terrorists and organized crime groups (Photo: RIA Novosti / Spanish Ministry of the Interior) The weapon, seized by Spanish police earlier this week, is estimated at 10 million euro on the black market, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Spanish National Police Corps. Reportedly, the police seized 10,000-12,000 pieces of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns, which can be used to shoot down aircraft. The weapons were destined for sale to terrorists and organized crime groups. View image on Twitter  Follow Ministerio Interior   ✔ @interiorgob Las armas que encontró la  @ policia , entre 10.000 y 12.000, el pasado jueves, estarían valoradas en 10 millones de euros en el mercado negro 1:55 PM - 15...

By Philip Weiss January 13, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - " Mondoweiss " - Last fall Secretary of State Kerry met privately with anti-Assad Syrian activists at the U.N. The meeting was secretly taped, and you can listen to the tape here:   The New York Times got a hold of the tape back in September and wrote a story about it . So did CNN . More on their accounts later. The thrust of the conversation was the mutual frustration of Kerry and the Syrians that Bashar al-Assad was still in power and able to commit atrocities with the support of the Russians, who don’t adhere to international law the way we Americans do. I’d recommend listening to the whole tape; but the conversation went something like this: The Syrians complained we aren’t helping enough. Kerry and his associates said we and the Saudis and Qatar and Turkey had provided huge amounts of aid to the rebels, who unfortunately were sort of aligned with extremists. “Nusra makes it hard,” Kerry said...

Source: alwaght.com Written by Evgeny Satanovsky; Originally appeared at VPK When Islamists become European constituent body The defeat of jihadi forces in Aleppo and the recapture of Palmyra by the Islamic State (ISIS) put into question the threats that Islamic fundamentalists pose not only in the Middle East, but also to Russia and the EU. First of all, there is the question of the continuation of the struggle by Islamists receiving support and orders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey against Moscow. (We leave the hopes for a long term cooperation with Turkey to the “experts” that are trying to substantiate such thesis to the Russian government). Then, one may ask about the flow of jihadists leaving highly dangerous zones – where their lives are threatened – for the European “alternate airfield”. We will discuss the current situation in non-Middle Eastern countries and regions that were touched by radical Islamism by using the article specially written by F.O. Pleshunov and Y. B. S...

A photo of the first guidebook. Source: novayagazeta.ru The Russian daily ‘Novaya Gazeta’ has released photos of two Syria guideboocks allegedly distributed among members of battalion “Sever” (“North”), a chechen battalion from the Natonal Guard of Russia. The guidebooks were reportedly leaked to the daily by a member of the battalion. The first brochure appeares to be a kind of survival guidebook. It provides info on Syria in general, translation of common and military phrases from Russian to Arabic, and some common tips (for example about drinking water and avoiding to use social networks). The guidbook is heavily illustrated. Indeed, its credibility is questionable. There are serious doubts that Russian military servicemen need illustrations of common military equipment (battle tanks, pickups, armoured vehicles etc) and weapons (AK-47, RPG-7, mortar shells etc) to understand what is it. A photo of the first guidebook. Source: novayagazeta.ru The cover of the first guideboo...