ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Vice-foreign minister says Pyongyang will conduct nuclear test when it sees fit as China appeals to US to avoid pre-emptive strike North Korea’s vice-foreign minister blames US for tensions – video North Korea has accused Donald Trump of raising tensions in the region and warned that the regime would conduct a nuclear test when it sees fit, as China issued a plea to Washington not to use pre-emptive military action. In an interview with the Associated Press in Pyongyang, North Korea’s vice-foreign minister, Han Song-ryol said Trump’s “aggressive” tweets aimed at the regime were “causing trouble”, adding that the mounting crisis on the peninsula was now locked in a “vicious cycle”. Han warned that North Korea would not “keep its arms crossed” in the event of a US pre-emptive strike. North Korea preparing for nuclear test, satellite images suggest China issued a plea against military action in North Korea before an anticipated sixth nuclear test on Saturday to mark

PressTv UserThis file photo, released by the US Air Force, shows a formation of US Navy F-18E Super Hornets after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker. Reports coming out of Syria suggest that hundreds of people, including civilians, have lost their lives after an airstrike by the US-led coalition hit poison gas supplies belonging to Daesh terrorists. The General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, in a statement released on Thursday, announced that the airstrike had taken place in the eastern village of Hatla, near the city of Dayr al-Zawr, at around 5:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT) the previous day. The statement, published by Syria’s official news agency, SANA, added that a cloud of thick white smoke covered the area after the strike, before it turned yellow. The assault also caused a fierce blaze, which continued until late in the evening on Wednesday. According to the Syrian Army statement, hundreds of people, including a large number of local villagers, were kille

By Moon Of Alabama  5667 days after the beginning of the war between the mightiest military of the world and local Afghan farmers, Pentagon reporters were excited to report: Lara Seligman‏ @laraseligman BREAKING: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan - GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast The U.S. generals demand, as they always do, more troops to "break the stalemate". But there is no stalemate. The Afghan farmers are winning. The Taliban control more areas now than they ever controlled since 2002. Dropping 22,000 lbs of high explosives on some shack will not change that trend. So what can the U.S. do but blaming Russia and Iran on dubious grounds. Those countries -like China and other nearby countries- see the obviously coming U.S. retreat and prepare for it. The U.S. will have to leave and to acknowledge that it joins the long lists of empires that tried to conquer Afghanistan and were defeated.

The U.S. military dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal Thursday on a cave and tunnel complex that it said was used by Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan, a stark reminder of a U.S. war now in its 16th grinding year. The behemoth bomb, officially called the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, is also known as the "mother of all bombs." It is 30 feet long, weighs nearly 11 tons and produces a devastating above-ground explosion that sends a mushroom cloud roiling high in the sky. Originally developed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the MOAB has never been used in combat before. Like the U.S. retaliatory missile strike in Syria last Friday, however, use of the monster munition in Afghanistan is more symbolic than tactical since it is unlikely to change the course of America’s longest war. President Trump praised the attack as a "very, very successful mission." He indicated that he had given the Pentagon a free hand to use the weapon as pa

© Omar Sobhani / Reuters Originally appeared at ZeroHedge It appears that Mike Cernovich, who earlier this week wrote that Trump’s national security advisor, Gen. H.R.McMaster, was planning on sending as many as 150,000 troops to Syria, may have been right again. According to Bloomberg commentator Eli Lake , who has now made a habit of confirming Cernovich “conspiracy theories” (he did so previously with the Susan Rice scoop ), Trump may be on the verge of escalating the proxy war in Syria by sending anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 troops on the ground, and – if Cernovich is indeed correct – as much as three times more. Per Lake , after U-turning on attacking Syria last week and on a variety of economic policies yesterday, the Donald Trump’s “biggest foreign policy surprise may be yet to come.” Specifically, he says that McMaster, has been quietly pressing his colleagues to question the underlying assumptions of a draft war plan against the Islamic State that would maintain only a l

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has ordered the evacuation of 25% of residents from Pyongyang and said they are to leave immediately. 600,000 people are to be urgently evacuated and it is thought that the evacuation has been prompted by the strained tensions with the USA. The bomb shelters of Pyongyang are not adequate enough to accommodate all of the population of North Korea, so 600,000 individuals; many with criminal records are going to have to leave the city so that others are able to use the bomb shelters.  ROCKET CARRIER WITH 154 TOMAHAWK MISSILES DEPLOYED TO KOREAN COAST  At the same time, it has been said that a modified Ohio type rocket carrier is going to carry 154 Tomahawk type missiles and this is said to be joining the US Navy which has been deployed close to the Korean Peninsula coast. The missile carrier will arrive at its port of registration by 18 April.  Kim Jong-un says North Korea can now strike US mainland: ‘NOBODY can stop us!’ North Korea or

Washington is going to increase its involvement in the Yemeni war, providing more support to Saudi Arabia. Photo: AP / Mindaugas Kulbis The US President Donald Trump’s administration demonstrates its interest to get more involved in the Yemen war, the Nation magazine reported. According to the magazine, the interest of the US President is driven in part by Saudi Arabia’s propaganda, according to which the Houthi militia, fighting against the rump government of Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is backed up by Iran. As the Nation reported, last week, Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), General Joseph Votel, said during his speech to the US Congress that Yemen is a key element for US security. According to the General, the country, located astride the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, could be used by an enemy to interrupt sea traffic in this area, through which about 10 percent of world trade flows. The magazine noted that the war itself “poses the biggest threat to m

The Iraqi Army started a new operation to liberate Al-Tanak neighborhood in Mosul city. Earlier the Army successfully liberated Al-Yrmuk and Al-Mattahen neighborhood during a rapid operation. Al-Tanak is considered as a very strategic area because it’s located to the west of the old industrial area where main ISIS explosive workshops are situated. According to Amaq –ISIS news agency- two VBIED hit the Iraqi forces in Hlielah village in the northwestern countryside of Mosul, the two attacks resulted in the death of 11 Iraqi soldier and the destruction of a BMP-1 armor. One more Iraqi police officer was killed In Dyala by an ISIS sniper . Additionally ISIS claimed it shot down an Iraqi drone in Ras Al-Jadah area in Mosul. From the other side the Iraq Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU) announced targeting a group of ISIS fighters with heavy rockets north of Al-Makhul in Salah Al-Deen. The PMU also announced capturing 12 ISIS suicide attackers in Takrit city after they sneaked in from Al-H