ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Click to see the full-size image. Source: https://twitter.com/LCarabinier On November 12, Arez Abdullah, head of the parliamentary bloc of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced that the PUK will be running in the upcoming Iraqi Parliament elections (scheduled for May 15, 2018) according to a report of the Kurdish media outlet Rudaw. The PUK was formed in 1975 by a group of Kurdish politics who defected from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Jalal Talabani was among them. He later became the first president of Iraq after Saddam was removed. After Talabani death on October 3, 2017, his son Bafel Talabani succeeded him as the de-facto leader of the PUK. The PUK party is very popular in western Kurdistan Region, epically in the party’s heartland, Sulaymaniyah city. Today, the party has 21 MPs in the Iraqi Parliament and only 18 in the Kurdistan Region Parliament. However, it’s still considered the second biggest Kurdish party in Iraq. Meanwhile, the head of elect...

The Saudi Authorities arrested Prince Bandar bin Sultan as a part of  the anti-corruption” purge that was launched by Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman , according to a report of the Middle East Eye (MEE) online news portal. Prince Bandar is a former Saudi ambassador to the US, and he is known to be a friend of former US President George W Bush, and former Syrian president Hafez Assad. Prince Bandar become really famous in 2011 when he was tasked with leading the Saudi efforts to fight Syria president Bashar al-Assad. Prince Bandar quickly become known as “the engineer of the Syria war” after he organized everything about the war, from the political opposition to armed groups in Syria. According to many reports the Prince was behind shipping tons of weapons and thousands of Jihadists from all over the world to feed the war against the Syrian government. The engineer of the Syrian war went to great length while trying t...

On November 12, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement reached a ceasefire agreement, according to the HTS-linked news agency Iba’a. The source said that the ceasefire is sponsored by leaders of the local tribes. Earlier, public figures from Atarib town in the western Aleppo countryside called on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to stop the clashes, and stressed that the locals will defend their areas from any attackers this time. Before the ceasefire took place, Iba’a announced that the Ajnad al-Sham armed group joined HTS. In an official statement, Ajnad al-Sham said that it chose  to be a part of “the Sunni body”. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah media wing in Syria revealed that 100 fighters were killed in the clashes between HTS and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement in the western Aleppo countryside. The high number of casualties suggests that the groups will likel...

The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Nimitz and their multi-ship strike groups are participating in military exercises off the Korean Peninsula. The exercises started on November 11 and are set to end on November 14. It is the first time three of the US aircraft carriers have sailed together in more than a decade. A US nuclear sumbarine has been also deployed in the region, according to reports. In turn, North Korea described US President Donald Trump as a “destroyer” who “begged for nuclear war”. “His current trip [Asia tour] to our surrounding region is a warmonger’s visit for confrontation to rid the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) of its self-defensive nuclear deterrence,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by Korean Central News Agency. Donald J. Trump   ✔ @realDonaldTrump Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and...

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 chan...

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, esp...

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 lin...

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. Includ...