ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On November 11, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced in an official statement that the Egyptian Army and Border Guards were able to detect a group of terrorist who were trying to sneak into the Egyptian territory from Libya. In response, the Egyptian Air Force conducted an aerial operation against the terrorist group. Egyptian F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters destroyed 10 vehicles and killed or injured several terrorists during the operation. The Egyptian Ministry of Defense revealed that the vehicles were loaded with weapons and explosives. Earlier this week, ISIS members attacked a civilian convoy from the local cement factory in North Sinai. About 10 civilias were reportedly killed. After the fall of Muammar Gaddafi back in 2011, Libya has become the main supplier for armed groups in the region. Weapons were shipped on daily basis to terrorist groups inside Egypt, to Hamas in Gaza Strip and even by sea to terrorist groups in Syria. However, things changed

On November 11, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it shot down an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) over the Golan demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria. The IDF said that it targeted the UAV with a MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system. A video, which was published on twitter by a Syrian opposition activist, showed that several Patriot missiles were fired against the UAV. Meanwhile, Reuters revealed that the UAV was Russian-made. Syrian pro-government sources confirmed the Reuters report and said that the UAV was an Orlan-10 of the Syrian Air Force. On July 17,  the Israel army fired three Patriot missiles against an unspecified UAV over the Golan Heights . However, none of the missiles hit the UAV that was able to go back to the Syria airspace. Llater it was revealed that it was a Russian-made UAV. The situation in the Golan highest will likely clam down in the upcoming hours, as Israel does not respond usually to this kind of violations, especia

A look at the Friday pipeline explosion On November 11, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior officially accused Iran of standing behind an explosion, which targeted a crude oil pipeline in Buri village in northern Bahrein on November 10. According to the Bahraini News Agency (BHA), Bahraini Minister of Interior Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said that the investigation results proved that the explosion was a result of a planned attack, and not an accident. The minister went futher and accused Iran of organizing “terrorist acts” in Bahrain previously. “The incident was an act of sabotage and a dangerous act of terrorism aimed at harming the higher interests of the nation and the safety of the people … Terrorist acts witnessed by the country in the recent period are carried out through direct contacts and instructions from Iran,” BHA quoted the statement. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) said in an official statement the crude oil pipe line was a s

North Korean hackers have stolen blueprints for South Korean warships and submarine from the database of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd, one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders, in April of last year. Though the identity of the perpetrators remained a mystery up until recently, it’s now believed that North Korean hackers were responsible for the data breach. “We are almost 100 percent certain that North Korean hackers were behind the hacking and stole the company’s sensitive documents,” said Kyung Dae-soo, a South Korean lawmaker and member of the conservative Liberty Korea Party. According to  DailyMail.co.uk , the Daewoo hacking was uncovered by a Ministry of Defense division tasked with investigating cybercrime cases. It’s believed that the hackers took around 40,000 documents, though the exact sensitivity of these documents has not been revealed by the investigators. What is known is that the hackers stole 60 classified military documents. Included i

On Friday, the “western press” started to set the stage for war between Lebanon (and Iran) and Saudi Arabia (and Israel). First, it was the  third reminder in a row that , despite no presentation of evidence, the ballistic missile that was fired last Saturday by Houthi rebels in Yemen, and supposedly meant to strike the Riyadh airport before it was intercepted by Saudi defense forces, the ballistic missile belonged to Iran. As the AP reported this morning, “the ballistic missile fired by Yemeni rebels that targeted the Saudi capital was from Iran and bore “Iranian markings,” the top U.S. Air Force official in the Mideast said Friday.” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who oversees the Air Forces Central Command in Qatar and made the comments at a news conference in Dubai, declined to offer any specifics on what type of missile they believed it was. It was unclear what, exactly, constitutes “Iranian markings”: perhaps – we mused – a stamp on the side saying “ this ballistic missile wa

Illustrative image On November 10, the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said that the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel are planning a war against Lebanon. Rezaei went on and warned about the consequences of such war on Lebanon on his personal website according to the Iranian MEHR agency. “Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel with the green light of the US have decided to destabilize and insecure Lebanon and have declared a war situation against the country but Lebanese people and government will resist against this invasion,” Rezaei wrote on his personal website. Many Lebanese media outlets warned of a possible Saudi-led war on Lebanon in the aftermath of  Lebanon Prime Minister resignation on November 4 .  Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Saudi Arabia is encouraging Israel to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon during a televised speech on November 10 . Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on all sides inside and outside Lebanon to

Written by  LeDahu ; Originally appeared at  thesaker.is After a brief interlude due to professional reasons, please find below the first part of an article on the Russian Navy, on the latest generation of frigates and the technological advances that has enabled Russian sea power to be noticed globally. This is article is partly in response to the original article, “New, Blue-Water Frigates to Become Main Surface Vessels of the Russian Navy”,  back in the summer, written by an Ukrainian naval officer for the Jamestown Foundation and widely circulated on social media. To save the readers too much trouble, the Russian naval capabilities are mostly presented in a negative light, and yet at the same time over exaggerates the Russian Navy’s overall ambitions.  [NB  Typical Western commentator framing of Russian military] . The author devotes a chunk of the article on the woes of operating the “Admiral Kuznetsov” aircraft carrier. The author also slants his article towards a percep