ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

… from   Sputnik News ,  Moscow Will ISIS really try to shoot their way out of Raqqa? [  Editor’s Note : The US Coalition shows its hand once again, its love for using proxy terrorism against Syria. While the US Kurdish allies have been tagged with making this deal to let ISIS retreat from Raqqa via the southern exit that was left open for them, the Washington-Pentagon hand would really be behind it. I saw when the Kurdish forces that took Tabqa did not  advance further east to cut Raqqa’s southern exit road that a plan was in place to use them against Assad somehow. But the plan does not really make sense,because even if they are allowed to escape to fight the Palmyra SAA forces, they cannot carry in one convoy enough supplies to sustain an offensive. The only feasible destination would be getting to Deir-Ezzor to join that big battle, unless they  accepted  a suicide mission to attack the northern flank of Palmyra, which would fail and accomplish nothing accept dive

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have liberated the Resala residential compound south of Al-Ba’aj town. Thus, the PMU has besieged ISIS in Al-Ba’aj from three directions so far. Click to see the full-size map In the course of its advance, the PMU destroyed an ISIS VBIED coming from Syria and captured another one. Furthermore, engineer units continued building fortifications at the Syrian-Iraqi border, and the PMU continued temporarily evacuating civilians from the Al-Baaj area. Meanwhile, the Iraqi army and the US-led coalition increased shelling of the Old Mosul area in western Mosul. The US-led coalition artillery bombed ISIS positions using white phosphorus shells, which led to the spread of fires. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Iraqi security forces continued advancing against ISIS in Zinjili district. According to pro-government sources, 119 ISIS fighters have been killed in

Click to see the full-size map The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), led by the Tiger Forces, has liberated the water pumping station northeast of the strategic ISIS-held town of Maskana in the province of Aleppo. The SAA has also liberated Smomia village west Maskana. Yesterday, the SAA managed to cut off the Maskana-Tabqah road, and besieged the remaining ISIS militants in the town of Maskana. Moreover, according to unconfirmed reports, SAA managed to capture  the northeastern and middle parts of the Tuaheina mountain range east of Khansir Road . Click to see the full-size map During its advance in the eastern Aleppo countryside, the SAA destroyed 101 ISIS vehicles, including 4 tanks and 2 BMP-1, according to the Hezbollah media wing in Syria. The SAA also destroyed 4 ISIS artillery pieces. From its side, ISIS claimed that it killed 18 Syrian soldiers and wounded 10 during the SAA’s attempt to advance towards Hamam village, east of Khansir. In the past few days, the SAA has

On June 2, ISIS announced a new attack on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions south of Deir Ezzor. However, SAA troops in the city and the airport managed to repel the ISIS attacks and the terrorist group failed to capture any point. Clashes are still ongoing in the Panorama area, the Syriatel hill and the Umm Abboud hill. Russian and Syrian Air Force warplanes targeted ISIS positions in the Panorama farms, the Al-Thardah mountain and the Taim oil field. Also the SAA artillery targeted ISIS fighters in Al-Mayadeen Kow’ and the vicinity of the panorama area. According to opposition sources, US-led coalition warplanes targeted ISIS positions in the oil fields of Ward, Tanak and Omar. From its side, ISIS continued to target civilians in Deir Ezzor city. Two people lost their life as a result of the ISIS shelling Al-Joura district with mortars. The Deir Ezzor province is witnessing poor humanitarian conditions as a result of heavy airstrikes by US-led coalition warplanes on A

In recent years, many American leaders have grown cavalier about nuclear war, especially with Russia, but there is also risk of a devastating conflict with China, as former U.S. Ambassador Chas W. Freeman Jr. observes. By Chas W. Freeman Jr.  (in a May 1 speech at Brown University) Let’s not kid ourselves. The armed forces of the United States and China are now very far along in planning and practicing how to go to war with each other. Neither has any idea when or why it might have to engage the other on the battlefield but both agree on the list of contingencies that could spark conflict. These range from naval scuffles in the Spratly or Senkaku Islands to full-spectrum combat over Taiwan independence or reunification. The context in which these contingencies might occur reflects an imbalance of power left over from history. U.S. forces are forward-deployed along China’s frontiers in a pattern that originated with the Cold War policy of “containment.” Chinese forces are deployed t

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary warfare. Their use has proliferated to such an extent that even non-state actors boast entire fleets of drones, including ISIS and its seemingly inexhaustible fleet of quadrocopters. Nearly every national military operates a drone force of some sort, starting with lightweight, shoulder-launched battlefield UAVs and ending with the infamous Predators and Reapers or their equivalents. But relatively few countries can boast drones at the high end of that spectrum represented by the HALE, or high-altitude long endurance, family. The onset of flight testing of the Altius-M HALE UAV indicates Russia is about to join that elite group. As the acronym itself suggests, HALE drones are meant for what essentially are high-importance intelligence gathering missions. The high altitudes at which they operate combined with long loiter times and heavy payloads mean they can provide reconnaissance capabilities seco

Written by  The Saker ; Originally appeared at  The Unz Review First, a confession: I really don’t know how the corporate media has covered the Trump trip to NATO and the G7 summit. Frankly, I don’t really care – it’s been a long while already since I stopped listening to these imperial shills. There is a risk in completely ignoring them, and that risk is the risk to say “white” when everybody else says “black”. This is a small risk – and, after all, who cares? – but today I will take it again and give you my own take on Trump’s trip to Europe: I think that it was an immense success. But not necessarily for Trump as much as it was an immense success for the enemies of the Empire, like myself. Here is my own rendition on what I think has taken place. First, Trump was consistently rude. I cannot judge if this lack of manners is the real Trump or whether Trump was tying to send an unspoken message. For whatever this is worth, I know of only one person who had personal and private dea