ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Click to see the full-size map On Friday, the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) captured al-Sa’ad and Second al-Wihdah districts in Tal Afar town in northern Iraq. With this move, government forces besieged dozens of ISIS fighters in Baghlar, al-Nida’a and Karki districts in the center of Tal Afar town.  Follow Hassan Ridha   @sayed_ridha الفرقة 15 من الجيش العراقي وقطعات الحشد الشعبي تحرر مركز ناحية المحلبية جنوب-شرق تلعفر بالكامل، وتبدأ بتطهير المنازل 16:00 - 25 Aug 2017   1 1 Reply     3 3 Retweets     16 16 likes Twitter Ads information and privacy Furthermore, the Iraqi forces captured al-Mushirfah, Murishah, al-Akabat and Tal Alan al-Kabir villages near al-Muhilibiah town east of Tal Afar. The Iraqi forces also captured the following areas: Silo Tal Afar area in southwest of Tal Afar area; Al-Talia’a area in the center of Tal Afar area; Al-Qhabat area southeast of Tal Afar area. During its advance

On Friday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) captured the Grand mosque in Marawi city, according to AFP spokesperson Brigadier General Restituto Padilla Jr. The mosque was the main headquarter for ISIS fighters in Marawi city. “There were two very important operational achievements our troops were able to achieve over the last few days during this week.  One was the retaking of Marawi City Police Station, a significant development, a symbol of authority over the city, and it was located in the strategic point. And the retaking of this installation was part of our priorities. The second is the retaking of Marawi City’s grand mosque or the Islamic Center , an operation that allowed us to reach at this stage but took us almost a month before this was achieved. The clearing is still ongoing,” Padilla said. Moreover, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited the front line in Marawi city including the newly captured Grand mosque. Duterte even fired a shot from a sniper ri

FILE IMAGE On Friday, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) general commander, Hashem al-Shikh Abu Jaber, said during the Friday prayers speech in Binish village in the eastern Idlib countryside that HTS is ready to dissolve itself if all other armed groups in Idlib governorate do the same. “They told us you have first to dissolve Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, we said we are ready to dissolve the organization that was built as a tool not as an aim, under the condition that  other groups dissolve itself and follow a joint command ,” Abu Jaber said. The suggestion included forming a joint police force in Idlib governorate under the command of the HTS civilian administration. Opposition sources claimed that Turkey was behind the suggestion. In his speech, Abu Jaber also attacked Russia and the USA, and accused the whole word of working to end “the Syrian revolution”. HTS took over Idlib city on July 23. Since then HTS has been trying to establish itself as the only legitimate power in Idli

The total value of the untapped minerals in North Korea is said to be enough so that if shared out among the seven billion people on Earth, everyone would receive a share that was more than $1000.  NORTH KOREA IS HOME TO MORE THAN 200 MINERALS WORTH MORE THAN $7 TRILLION  The secluded nation is home to huge deposits of over 200 minerals and this is said to include copper, magnesite, zinc, molybdenum, gold, limestone and iron that in total is worth more than $7 trillion.  While there is a vast array or riches lying under the bedrock of North Korea, being able to take full advantage of them is something that has been very difficult. Thanks to the fact that North Korea lacks the mining machinery and equipment that would be needed to get at some of the rarer minerals, along with sanctions that make it illegal for private enterprises to put up drilling sites, it is impossible to extract the rarer minerals.  MINING MAKES UP 14% OF NORTH KOREA`S ECONOMY  Even with the lim

On August 23, 46 civilians including women and children were killed and dozens others were injured in a Saudi airstrike on a hotel in Bit al-Izri village north of the Arhab area in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Yemen Scholars Association and many Yemeni political parties condemned the massacre and emphasized their support of the fight against the Saudi coalition. The spokesperson for the Ansar Allah Movement (the Houthis) called all sides in Yemen to condemn the Arhab massacre. Also on August 23, Saudi sources announced that 8 Saudi soldiers were killed by Houthis forces in Jizan on the Yemeni-Saudi border. The sources added that the Saudi Army repelled the attack and destroyed many vehicles of the Houthis. At the  same day, tens of thousands supporters of the Houthis and former Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh marched in the Yemeni capital Sana’a. The demonstrators stressed their support for the fight ag

(Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) On Thursday, Israeli Minster of Defense, Avigdor Lieberman said during a press conference at the Israel Institute of Energy and Environment that Israel will not sit and watch how the Iranian influence growing in Syria. “ Iran, via its Revolutionary Guard, is trying to create a new reality in the region with Iranian air force and naval bases in Syria, with Shiite militias numbering thousands of mercenaries and by manufacturing precise weaponry in Lebanon, ” Lieberman said. “Israel does not intend to resign itself to these attempts and will not act as onlooker from the sidelines.” Although Iranian presence in Syria is indeed growing Iran isn’t building any naval or air bases in Syria. Moreover, many experts doubt that the Iranian Air Force can handle a real deployment in Syria. However, Iran has mutliple facilities used as logistic bases across the country. In turn, Israel is likely trying to create a pretexts that

By Tyler Durden   A  United Nations Committee tasked with combating racism on a global scale has  issued an ultra rare "early warning"  for the United States citing "alarming racism" trends . As StockBoardAsset.com notes,  this  rare signal often preludes the potential for civil conflict . In the past 10-years,  the early warning has been issued in Burundi, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria. The  United Nations Committee on the Eliminations of Racial Discrimination  has  called on high-level politicians and public officials of the United States to condemn “racist hate speech and crimes in Charlottesville and through the country”. Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson of UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)  said : We are alarmed by the racist demonstrations, with overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan,  promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination

By Scott Humor & Kulak     Trump’s new commitment to continue the war in Afghanistan  comes as a shock, after all the Americans had voted to stop Washington’s wars around the world.  As a punishment, they are being treated to an artificially created civil conflict, while the deep state continues to use the US infrastructure, financial and human capital and military to pursue its doctrine of perpetual war. Reading from the teleprompter,  Trump not only unveiled plans for open-end war, he also promised to stop revealing any future US plans. It makes sense to look at the plans they have revealed so far to see what to expect. After all, we all have witnessed working of the plan revealed by the general Wesley Clark in 2007 to take out seven countries in five years. In August 2012, TRISA-Threats published “ Operational Environments to 2028: The Strategic Environment for Unified Land Operations”.  In this publication, TRADOC G-2 identified potentially contentious OEs and miss