ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Ray McGovern Top Russian and Chinese leaders are busy comparing notes, coordinating their approach to President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg this weekend. Both sides are heralding the degree to which ties between the two countries have improved in recent years, as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visits Moscow on his way to the G20. And, they are not just blowing smoke; there is ample substance behind the rhetoric. President Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to a state dinner during their summit at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on April 6, 2017. (Screen shot from whitehouse.gov) Whether or not Official Washington fully appreciates the gradual – but profound – change in America’s triangular relationship with Russia and China over recent decades, what is clear is that the U.S. has made itself into the big loser. Gone are the days when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger skillfully took advantage of the Sino-Soviet rivalry and played the two countries off ag

ISIS’s last holdout in Syria is in Raqqa; its forces have been backed into an ancient wall that surrounds the old city of Raqqa on three sides. The Rafiqah Wall, first constructed in the 8th century by the Abbasid dynasty, is reported to be over 12 feet high, over a meter thick and stretches over 3 miles around the old city. FILE IMAGE While the wall had been described as an important fortification for ISIS, the advancement of Syrian troops made the wall a trap that could have allowed the ISIS fighters to be completely wiped out. According to a July 3, 2017 TIME article(1), ISIS fighters had taken positions there “to defend the city [sic]” and planted explosive devices at what the article described as “breaks in the wall.” Under the circumstances, the point to planting explosive devices in the wall would only have been to create escape routes. It was apparent from the next day’s news, however, that the “breaks in the wall” were not adequate for escape. The US-backed forces, fr

Tu-95 On Wednesday, Russian Tu-95MS strutegic bombers struck ISIS targets in Syria with X-101 cruise missiles. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the cruise missile strike destroyed three large arms and ammunition depots, and a terrorist command center near the city of Uqayribat in the province of Hama. The strike was made from the range of about 1,000 kilometers. The Tu-95MS bombers took off from an airfield in Russia. The Russian Aerospace Forces’ Su-30 fighters based in Syria prvided air cover for the strategic bombers.

New images published on social media revealed that the Syrian T-55MV tank was upgraded with a thermal sight and a Fire Control System. The Syrian Scientific Research Center (SSRC) upgraded the Belarusian 1K13 sight from BELOMO Company by adding a thermal camera with the range of 8 km and a high resolution. It seems that the camera and the sight 1K13 were connected to each other and into an LCD instead of the traditional sight. The sight is also connected to a ballistic computer with the possibility of inserting other information such as wind speed and direction making it a Syrian made semi-automatic fire control system. It is not clear if the tank is also equipped with other sensors to support the ballistic computer and increase accuracy. Moreover, it seems that the tank is equipped with the Syrian-made active protection system Sarab-1. It is not known whether Belarus has assisted the Syrian Scientific Research Center to develop this system. However, the center has already impleme

Syrian government forces have liberated the Tulul Hayl area from ISIS and made gains against ISIS near Ramamin in the province of Homs. The Syrian army and its allies, backed up by the Russian Aerospace Forces, are preparing for a major push toward the ISIS-held town of Sukhna at the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road. Click to see the full-size map

Written by  Darius Shahtahmasebi ; Originally appeared at  theantimedia.org At the end of May, the Washington D.C.-based Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) released a  study  concluding that the death toll from the American-led “War on Terror” could be as high as two million just since the years following the 9/11 attacks. The study, entitled “Body Count,” is 97 pages long and involved tallying up the total number of civilian casualties from U.S.-led adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media has paid close to zero attention to this report despite the high-profile nature of the group that produced it (they shared in the 1985  Nobel Peace Prize  with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The study found that in many instances, previous estimates had “grossly” underestimated the body count. According to the researchers: “ The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the publ

© AFP 2017/ George OURFALIAN The Russian Military Police may be deployed in buffer zones in Syria, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Astana talks and the president’s envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said on Tuesday. “So far, it is difficult to speak about the presence of Russian monitors and defense ministry representatives, but,  in general, it is supposed that Russian military police could be deployed in buffer security zones ,” Lavrentyev said, according to  TASS . “ This issue has not yet been finally agreed. It will imply the status of de-escalation control forces. “ He added that sides will begin setting up security zones within two-three weeks after signing relevant documents. “A very important aspect is that all the  guarantor countries want to set up a joint coordination center to monitor security in the de-escalation zones . I think we can pass this document in principle,” he said. However, the Russian official added that there are still difficulties in “e

North Korea successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time on Tuesday, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News. The ballistic missile flew longer than any North Korean missile test conducted by the rogue regime to date, U.S. Pacific Command said -- meaning Kim Jong Un's dictatorship may now possess the ability to strike Alaska. North Korea launched previously a missile on Mother's Day that flew for 30 minutes and reached an altitude 1,000 miles higher than the international space station. But Tuesday's missile flew for 37 minutes and reached a height of 1,500 miles, leading missile experts to conclude it could have reached a target 4,000 miles away, putting Alaska in its cross-hairs. Related Image Expand / Collapse This image made from video of a news bulletin aired by North Korea's KRT on Tuesday, July 4, 2017, shows what was said to be the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM