ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

FSB The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained two ISIS members who were planning to carry out attacks in Moscow Region on September 1, the FSB said on Thursday. According to the FSB, the terrorists were plotting to attack crowded places on Knowledge Day, the beginning of the school year in Russia. The FSB “detected and suppressed the criminal activity of two immigrants from the Central Asian region, who were plotting to carry out terrorist attack in places of mass gathering on 1 September this year.” Earlier one of the terrorists published a video in which he addressed ISIS. “In the address he gave the so-called ‘oath of loyalty to terrorists.’ After that, he planned attacks on civilians with non-firearm weapons,” the FSB said.

Shabab al-Sunnah On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Shabab al-Sunnah militant group in Daraa has of chemical weapons and is planning to use them. “We have received worrying information. According to Russia’s information, the Shabab al-Sunnah armed group has access to chemical weapons,” Zakharova said during a press conference. Shabab al-Sunnah is one of the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups in southern Syria. The group participated in the attack on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in Daraa city earlier this year. Furthermore, the groups is one of few FSA groups in Daraa that has received US-made TOW ATGMs. Zakharova releveled that Shabab al-Sunnah has several missiles fitted with chemical agents in its warehouse in Daraa. Furthermore, according to Zakharova, the group is planning to use this weapons against a civilian area in Daraa. Likely Shabab al-Sunnah is planning to sabotage the de-escalation agreement in southern Syria b

Click to see the full-size image The article is provided by  Islamic World News  exclusively for  SouthFront A high number of ISIS militants surrendered themselves to Kurdish Peshmerga forces during the Iraqi military operation in the Tal Afar area. ISIS members run away from the Iraqi Army and  the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)  and entered the Peshmerga-held area north of Tal Afar where they surrendered themselves to Kurdish fighters. Others that were trying to escape towards Syria via the Peshmerga-held area were eliminated. According to Kurdish sources, 170 ISIS militants were killed and 450 ISIS militants surrendered. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image

FILE IMAGE On August 31, Afghanistan Intelligence Service denied in an official statement any official talks with Taliban officials. The statement came after a report of the Associated Press (AP) released a report that officials from the Afghanistan Intelligence Service talk  with Talban officials almost on daily bases. The AP report that was published on August 30 said that Afghani officials held talks with the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and with the Taliban office in Qatar. The AP said that its report is based on official documents that describe these talks. The documents were shown to the AP by a senior Afghan security official, according to the report. In the last few years many reports claimed that negotiations were ongoing between the Afghani government and the Taliban. Some reports even said that there were negotiations between the US and the Taliban, mainly in Qatar. On August 30, the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad claimed that Taliban fighters repelled a

On Wednesday, Houthis launched a ballistic missile on the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, Yemeni sources claimed. The Houthis media wing and the UAE government have not denied or confirm these claims so far. A local source from Abu Dhabi denied that any missile hit the city or any area near it.   It’s unlikely that these reports are true as the most advance ballistic missile the Houthis got is only 400km in range while Abu Dhabi is more than 600km away from Yemen. If Houthis indeed were able to target the UAE with a ballistic missile that got a range of over 600km it would be a big technological breakthrough for the Houthis missile force. However, even in this case this would mean that the missile had technical problems or was intercepted by the UAE Air Defense Force as it didn’t hit its target for sure. On Tuesday,  Houthi fighters repelled a large attack of Saudi-led forces in al-Aulib mountains in Najran near the Saudi-Yemeni border . The Houthis killed several pro-Hadi fighte

FILE IMAGE On August 30, Brigadier General Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of the 1st Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), announced that the AFP stepped up its bombing on the remaining ISIS-held area in Marawi city to open the way for the final push against terrorists. “One of the lessons we learned is that we really have to support the advance of troops by pouring all the firepower in,” Gen. Bautista said. Moreover, the AFP successfully captured the Mapandi bridge after weeks of clashes with ISIS fighters. The bridge was the last suppling route for ISIS in Marawi city. ISIS now controls only a 500-square-meter pocket inside Marawi city surrounded by the AFP from all sides. So far 617 ISIS fighters have been killed in the Marawi battle, while the AFP has lost 133 soldiers. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the battle to liberate Marawi entered its final phase. “We are in the final stages. So let us send immediately,

A U.S. black hawk helicopter flies over the site of a Taliban suicide attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan on August 2. JAVED TANVEER/AFP/GETTY On Wednesday, Bob Purtiman, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, denied the Taliban’s claims about downing a US helicopter in Logar province in central Afghanistan. “ The Taliban’s claim to have shot down a U.S. helicopter in Logar Province is false ,” Purtiman said. However, Purtiman revealed that a US helicopter had some technical problem and it made a precautionary landing. “ A helicopter did make a precautionary landing for a maintenance issue.   The aircraft has been successfully recovered ,” Purtiman explained. The Taliban claimed earlier that it downed a US helicopter in Logar province. Furthermore, the Taliban claimed that 20 US soldiers were killed in the attack. The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: “ As the American occupiers tried to airdrop a number of other American soldiers, the mujahede

FILE IMAGE On Wednesday, Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah released an official message to the Iraqi people regarding the deal with ISIS fighters on the Syrian-Lebanese border. Nasrallah said that the message is an answer to  some Iraqi officials comments on the deal with ISIS . Nasrallah stated that the number of ISIS fighters who will leave is only 310. Nasrallah also said that these fighters are moved within the Syrian territories and denied moving them from the Lebanese border to the Iraqi border as some sources claimed. “The area they were moved to is the front line of the Syrian desert that everyone knows that the Syrian Arab Army –(SAA)- and its allies are fighting on it an intense fight, and that the spearhead of the attack on ISIS in the Syrian desert always been and will be Hezbollah who give away large numbers of martyrs there. By this we are moving these defeated militiamen – ISIS fighters – from a front we fight on, to another front that we fight on,” Nasrallah