ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

This is the newst update of the ‘U.S. Carrier Strike Groups Locations Map’ exclusive series showing the approximate locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups on a weekly basis. SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence tracks locations of U.S. aircraft carriers using the available open-source information. No classified information was used in production of the map. Click to see the full-size map Carrier strike group (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is centered on an aircraft carrier and a carrier air wing (CVW) of 65 to 70 aircrafts. It’s composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers and/or frigates. A carrier strike group also, on occasion, includes submarines, attached logistics ships and a supply ship. Carrier strike groups comprise a principal element of U.S. power projection over the world’s oceans.

North Korea has tested a new type of cruise missile that could strike US and South Korean warships, North Korean state-run media said Friday. “ This new-type cruise rocket is a powerful attack means capable of striking any enemy group of battleships ” attempting to attack the country and can be used “at will,” the Korean Central News Agency said. The missiles “accurately detected and hit” floating targets at sea after making “circular flights,” according to the report. North Korea didn’t reveal how many anti-ship missiles it had launched. However, South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-yong said that four short-range missiles were fired. The projectiles were reportedly fired from the town of Wonsan and flew about 200 km before reaching targets between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The anti-ship missiles represent the fourth new missile system that North Korea has introduced and tested this year.  The new missile tests came amid US THAAD miss...

A woman and boy walk past a Qatar Airways branch in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on 5 June 2017 (AFP/Getty Images) Tension between Qatar and Saudia began in 2016 when Qatar was the last Arabian Gulf country to condemn the Iranian government for the attack on the Saudi embassy in Iran by protestors that took place after Saudi Arabia had executed a Saudi Shia cleric. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt launched a number of attempts to prevent Qatar’s cooperation with Iran. On June 4, 2017, when the attempts failed, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrin announced cutting all diplomatic ties with Qatar.  They even imposed limited sanctions on Qatar banning Qatari jets and ships from entering the airspace or ports of Saudi Arabia and its allies. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia said that Qatar has to cut its diplomatic relations with Iran and to stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas movement and Hezbollah. Qatar refused to fulfil the demands. Qatari...

By Pepe Escobar US President Donald Trump could not possibly have predicted the game-changing after-effects of his triumphal sword dance in Riyadh. Or could he? The fact is the House of Saud went amok, in a flash, going after Qatar and bombing from the inside that glorious Arab NATO project – call it NATOGCC — sworn with pomp over a glowing orb. An excited Trump tweeted three times his approval for Riyadh going after Doha.  Trump and NATOGCC had equaled Daesh and Iran as “terrorists”. The House of Saud went one up — and denounced Qatar for top terror financing, which equals Don Corleone hurling Mafioso accusations against Tony Soprano.  But then, in an unexpected plot twist, Daesh, handily, graphically, underlined the cosmic stupidity of the whole charade – staging, or at least claiming to stage a terror attack against the Parliament and the Imam Khomeini shrine in ...

By Paul Pillar   For Americans fed a diet of rhetoric about Iran that constantly links it to the sending, not the receiving, end of terrorism—in which “the leading state sponsor of terrorism” is the adjectival phrase routinely affixed to Iran, and in which official rhetoric such as President Trump’s  speech in Riyadh  mashes Iran together with Sunni Islamist terrorism of the ISIS variety into one undifferentiated blob of evil—the deadly attacks today in Tehran generate much cognitive dissonance.  But however disorienting this news may have been, it is true.  An obviously well-planned operation struck at the heart of Iran, at its parliament and the monument to the Islamic Republic’s founder.  At least a dozen people were killed and dozens more injured.  The credibility of the claim of responsibility by ISIS is enhanced by the group’s posting of video footage from the attack. For anyone looking beyond rhetoric and at reality, the attack is no surp...

Source: http://blog.al.com Written by  Mark Curtis ; Originally appeared at  markcurtis.info   The Telegraph reports that London attacker Rachid Redouane fought in the 2011 British/NATO war against Qadafi  – as did Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber – and joined a militia which went on to send jihadist fighters to Syria. In Libya, he is believed to have fought with the  Liwa al Ummah  unit. [1] The  Liwa al Ummah  was formed by a deputy of Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the former emir of the al Qaeda-linked  Libyan Islamic Fighting Group . In 2012, the Liwa al Ummah in Syria  merged  with the  Free Syrian Army (FSA) [2] , which was formed in August 2011 by army deserters based in Turkey [3]  whose aim was to bring down Assad. In Syria, the  Liwa al Ummah  was often referred to as an ‘FSA unit’ [4]  and sometimes teamed up with  al-Nusra , al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria.  [5] The  UK ...

Yesterday’s  news that Saudi Arabia has issued an ultimatum to Qatar , listing ten demands among which that Qatar end all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, has prompted a dramatic response by the small Gulf nation, and according to a just released report by  Arabic CNN  (and confirmed  locally ) US officials have said they have observed increased Qatari military activity  as the country placed its forces “on the highest state of alert” over fears of an imminent military incursion. Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attends a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on December 6, 2016, in the Bahraini capital Manama. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER (Photo credit should read STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images) The sources add that the Qatari military has  brought up 16 Leopard tanks out of storage in Doha in preparation for a potential military incursion by surrounding Gulf states . Furthermore, the Qatari Ministry of Defense reportedly also sent a le...

By Derek Davison Early Monday morning,  five Arab states —Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—along with  the Maldives , broke all diplomatic and physical ties with the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar. All six countries say they are withdrawing their diplomats from Qatar within 48 hours and expect Qatari diplomats to reciprocate within the same time frame, and other Qatari nationals in those countries have two weeks to leave. Those countries have also cut all land, sea, and air contact with Qatar—meaning, among other things, that Qatar’s land border with Saudi Arabia is now closed, airlines from those six countries will no longer fly into Qatar, and Qatar Airways flights have been barred from their airspace. In its  official statement  explaining this move, Riyadh noted Qatar’s “grave violations” against Saudi Arabia and Bahrain: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken this decisive decision as a result of grave violations being com...