ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On November 3, the US Army Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced in an official statement that American warplanes conducted two airstrikes against positions of ISIS in Somalia. AFRICOM said that several ISIS fighters were killed in the two airstrikes. “U.S. forces will continue to use all authorized and appropriate measures to protect Americans and to disable terrorist threats. This includes partnering with AMISOM and Somali National Security Forces (SNSF); targeting terrorists, their training camps and safe havens throughout Somalia, the region and around the world,” AFRICOM said in its statement. Meanwhile, the chairman of Qandala town, Jama Mohamed Qurshe told Voice Of America Agency that six missiles hit a base of ISIS in Buqa village, 60 kilometers south of Qandala town in the. Furthermore, a US official revealed to the CNN the strikes were carried out by an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). The Somali National News Agency said that this the first time the US conduct ...

Saudi Arabia’s GDP reached almost 800 billion dollars in 2014 with а military budget of more than 70 billion dollars. The country that has a population of less than 30 million people and an army of 233,500 units is ranked third in the world in military spending. The technology and weaponry which is used by the Saudi military is one of the most modern one, and most of the other countries in the region can hardly compete in modernization with the Saudi’s, with the exception of Israel. Although being rich and having a highly modernized army, Saudi Arabia heavily relies on overseas partners for its security and assistance in military training and development. The main allies of this Gulf monarchy are France, the U.S. and the UK; this summer alone, the Saudis spent around 4-5 billion dollars on London’s arms expo also known as DSEI. Therefore why is YouTube full of videos posted by sparsely equipped Houthi rebels showing state-of-the-art US-manufactured weapons belonging to the Saudi...