ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

by   MATTHEW HOH Photo by DVIDSHUB |  CC BY 2.0 There has never been progress by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, unless you are asking the U.S. military contractors or the Afghan drug barons, of whom an extremely large share are our allies in the Afghan government, militias and security forces, there has only been suffering and destruction. American politicians, pundits and generals will speak about “progress” made by the 70,000 American troops put into Afghanistan by President Obama beginning in 2009, along with an additional 30,000 European troops and 100,000 private contractors, however the hard and awful true reality is that the war in Afghanistan has only escalated since 2009, never stabilizing or deescalating; the Taliban has increased in strength by tens of thousands, despite tens of thousands of casualties and prisoners; and American and Afghan casualties have continued to grow every year of the conflict, with U.S. casualties declining only when U.S. force

Jim Hollander / Reuters On August 25, Taliban militants entered Khas Uruzgan district in central Afghanistan after they had overrun all the Afghani Army positions around it, according to Afghani sources. However, until now Taliban fighters didn’t impose their full control over the district. According to the Taliban media wing, Voice of Jihad, the Khas Uruzgan district administration center and police headquarter are now sieged by Taliban fighters. Taliban fighters killed 4 Afghani policemen and captured two Humvee vehicles and several pickup trucks during the attack, according to Afghani sources. During the last month Talibn captured 11 district centers in Afghanistan. The Afghani Army even with the US-led coalition support was only able to recapture 2 district centers. Moreover, Voice of Jihad announced that Taliban fighters attacked several checkpoints of the Afghani Army in Tagab Shan, Gawki and Jar Kala areas of Guriwan district. Taliban fighters captured the checkpoin

On Saturday, a report of the UK-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper claimed that an agreement was reached between Hezbollah and ISIS at the Syrian-Lebanese border. According to the supposed agreement, ISIS fighters will be allowed to withdraw to Deir Ezzor governorate in Syria. Asharq al-Awsat claimed that between 50 and 350 ISIS fighters are left on the Syrian-Lebanese border. Although the Lebanese and Syrian attacks slowed down on Saturday. No official sources confirmed Asharq al-Awsat claims. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah media wing in Syria announced that Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) captured Shmaies Tm al-Mal in the Western Qalamoun region. From its side, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) continued to shell ISIS positions in Martabiah valley. In a separate development, the Lebanese Intelligence arrested, Hassan Hamad al-Hassan, an ISIS member. Lebanese authorities accused al-Hassn of planning an assassination of a high ranking officer of the LAF. Al-Hassn had allegedly rec

On Saturday, the Homs countryside operation room announced in an official statement that it kicked out Jaish al-Tawhid. The operation room said that Jaish al-Tawhid “broke the red lines agreed upon by the room’s groups” with no further explanations. The Homs countryside operation room includes US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups like Jaish al-Izzah. The operation room rejected the de-escalation agreement in the northern Homs countryside. Click to see the full-size image Furthermore, local sources claimed that Jaish al-Tawhid was kicked out of the room mainly for joining the de-escalation agreement earlier. Many US-backed FSA groups and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have been working to sabotage the de-escalation agreement in the northern Homs countryside. However, they have not achieved any notable success so far. On Saturday, the Syrian Arab Army accused these groups of shelling Qarmas and Maryamen villages in the northern Homs countryside. According to pro-government s

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