ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Dead bodies of Islamic State militants (representational photo) Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Thirty Islamic State militants were killed on Wednesday when Iraqi fighter jets pounded a location where they held a leadership meeting east of Anbar, a senior local militia commander said. Nazem al-Jugheifi, an intelligence official at Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), said the deaths included senior leaders of the extremist group who were leading a security meeting in central Rawa. He said the dead commanders belonged to the group’s branch in the Syrian Boukamal region. Jugheifi said the meeting tackled the group’s status in the province’s western regions. Iraqi forces launched last week operations to retake those areas, most notably tee towns of Annah and Rawa. Security sources in Anbar said earlier this week that the operations, backed by tribal militias, had halted until security troops consummate the liberation of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest stronghold in Iraq that has been wit

By The Saker  In my recent article “ Risks and Opportunities for 2017 ” I made a statement which shocked many readers. I wrote: Russia is now the most powerful country on the planet. (…) the Russian armed forces are probably the most powerful and capable ones on earth (albeit not the largest ones) (…) Russia is the most powerful country on earth because of two things: Russia openly rejects and denounces the worldwide political, economic and ideological system the USA has imposed upon our planet since WWII and because Vladimir Putin enjoys the rock-solid support of about 80%+ of the Russian population. The biggest strength of Russia in 2017 is a moral and a political one, it is the strength of a civilization which refuses to play by the rules which the West has successfully imposed on the rest of mankind. And now that Russia has successfully “pushed back” others will inevitably follow (again, especially in Asia). While some dismissed this as rather ridiculous hyperbole, others have aske

The first six Anka-S systems will be delivered to the Turkish Armed Forces in 2017. Photo: Turkish Aerospace Industries The Turkish Armed Forces will receive the first batch of the Anka-S unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), developed in Turkey, until the end of 2017, the Defense News portal reported, citing the Turkish Defense Ministry. According to Tusas Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which developed the Anka and Anka-S drones, this year, the Turkish military will get six Anka-S systems, while the remaining four systems will be delivered in 2018. A contract for the design, development and production of ten Anka-S systems was signed by TAI and the Turkey’s defense procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), in 2013. In the last quarter of 2016, the Anka-S started its test flights. The UAV is currently going through a qualification process. At the same time, flight simulators for the drone are being developed by TAI engineers. The Anka-S is capable to fly

Click to see the full-size map Eastern Mosul is almost liberated and only a few areas remain under the control of ISIS terrorists, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement on Wednesday. The statement says that “the basic military plan” for Mosul’s liberation had been completed “in most combat axes” and operations continue to liberate the Ghabat and Presidential Palaces area besides “a few other regions” in the north of Mosul. Meanwhile, representatives of the Iraqi army’s Counter-Terrorism Forces told journalists at a press conference that they had retaken all districts assigned to them in eastern Mosul. 3300 ISIS militants have been killed since operations there were launched in October 2016 Click to see the full-size map

By John Kiriakou President-elect Donald Trump is accusing CIA Director John Brennan of being the source of “fake news” about him, essentially calling our new supreme leader a Russian stooge and accusing him of taking part in a sexual kink in full view of Russian intelligence cameras in a Moscow hotel room several years ago. I have no idea whether or not Trump, during a visit to Moscow in 2010, hired prostitutes to urinate on a Four Seasons Hotel Presidential Suite mattress because the Obamas had once slept there. I don’t care. I also have no idea if the Russian government “hacked” the Democratic National Committee and stole Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails. I have not seen any CIA, FBI, or NSA evidence, so I have come to the personal conclusion that the hacking story is overblown. All countries spy on each other. It’s a fact of life. The U.S. spies on just about everybody in the world. So I have a problem with the righteous indignation that I’m seeing from so many of my f

More than 20 U.S. intelligence, military and diplomatic veterans are calling on President Obama to release the evidence backing up allegations that Russia aided the Trump campaign – or admit that the proof is lacking. MEMORANDUM FOR: President Barack Obama FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: A Key Issue That Still Needs to be Resolved As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office Friday, a pall hangs over his upcoming presidency amid an unprecedentedly concerted campaign to delegitimize it. Unconfirmed accusations continue to swirl alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized “Russian hacking” that helped put Mr. Trump in the White House. As President for a few more days, you have the power to demand concrete evidence of a link between the Russians and WikiLeaks, which published the bulk of the information in question. Lacking that evidence, the American people should be told that there is no fire under the smoke and mi

By Moon Of Alabama The city of Deir Ezzor (Deir ez-Zur) in east-Syria is on the verge of falling into the hands of the Takfiris of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). More than 100,000 civilian inhabitants of Deir Ezzor and thousands of soldiers defending them are in immediate danger of being murdered by the savage ISIS forces. The current situation is a direct consequence of U.S. military action against the SAA and non-action against ISIS. Deir Ezzor is besieged by ISIS since September 2015. But the city was well defended by its garrison of Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and all further attacks by ISIS were repelled. Supply to the city was hauled in by air through the Deir Ezzor airport and through air drops by the Syrian and Russian airforces. Relief by ground forces and ground supplies are not possible as Deir Ezzor is more than 100 km away from the nearest SAA positions west of Palmyra and as the desert in between is under the control of ISIS. Google map - bigger Four days ago a ne

Ex-intelligence analyst more than 6 years into a 35-year sentence for leaking classified documents By AP U.S. President Barack Obama is commuting the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former army intelligence analyst who leaked classified documents. The White House says Manning is one of 209 inmates whose sentences Obama is shortening. Manning is more than six years into a 35-year sentence for leaking classified government and military documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. Her sentence is now set to expire May 17. She was known as Bradley Manning at the time of her 2010 arrest and attempted suicide twice last year. Chase Strangio, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT Project who has been representing Manning, said he was "relieved and thankful" that the president commuted the decades-long sentence. "Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement — including for attemp