ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

FILE IMAGE On November 25, ISIS fighters attacked positions of the Taliban movement around Sabin Ghr Mount in Khogyani district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. ISIS captured the following 18 villages from the Taliban: Ghr, Tur Ragah, Murki, Abukusib, Ankora, Hussien Khail, Kindao, Wti, Omr, Bror, Shama’a, Anar Minah, Khruti, Ghundi, Bitlau, Sankani, Khalah Khail, Sinah. Amaq also reported that several fighters of the Taliban were killed or injured during the ISIS attack in Khogyani district. Lately, ISIS expanded its influence in Nangarhar after a series of successful attacks against the Taliban. This led to an increase in ISIS terrorist attacks against the civilians in the province.  The latest terrorist attack hit the provincial capital, Jalalabad city, on November 23 . In a separated development, the US military announced that its advanced F-22 stealth fighters jets destroyed ten narcotic production facilitie...

ISIS fighters beheading Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya. On November 25, Cairo Criminal Court sentensed seven members of ISIS to death after charging them with the kidnapping and killing of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians in 2015, according to the UAE-based al-Arabiya TV. The media added that ten other members of ISIS also linked to the case were sentensed to life imprisonment. Egypt’s Public Prosecution also accused the 17 terrorists of joining ISIS and forming a terrorist cell in the city of Mersa Matruh in northern Egypt. The Public Prosecution revealed that the terrorist received military training in ISIS camps in Syria and Libya and planned to conduct terrorist attacks inside and outside Egypt. The seven ISIS members sentensed to death were a part of the ISIS unit, which abducted 20 Egyptian Copts in the Libyan city of Sirte in two separate attacks in December 2014 and in January 2015. On February 15, 2015, the ISIS media agency al-Hayat released a five-minutes v...

It’s now two years since the horrific attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more at a sports stadium, at sidewalk cafés, and in the Bataclan concert hall. The world was shaken, and the powerful tremors of terror were felt in the United States. Then, less than three weeks later, a husband and wife who’d secretly embraced violent jihad carried out a mass shooting at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead and 22 injured. Candidate Donald Trump was able to ride a wave of fear that helped him clinch the Republican nomination and eventually the presidency as he called for a ban on foreign Muslims and registration of domestic ones in the United States. But such measures have proved difficult to implement, and would be counterproductive if ever they were put in effect. The following essay by veteran counterterror investigator Ahmet Yayla offers a different approach. —Christopher Dickey, World News Editor The anniversaries of the Bata...

Indian Express  reported  that Indian Ministry of Defense ultimately decided against buying the large shipment of Spike Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) for $525 million developed by Israeli Rafael Defense Systems. The decision was made at the last moment. Rafael report that they did not receive any official statement from India, and the contract is still ongoing. In 2009, the Indian Ministry of Defense accepted the requirement of buying 321 ATGM launchers and 8,356 missiles, with 30 per cent offsets and a transfer of technology clause, with 30% offsets and a transfer of technology clause. Two options were considered: Israeli Spike-MR and US FGM-148 Javelin by Texas Instruments and Martin Marietta (now Raytheon and Lockheed Martin). The US refused to transfer the technology, so India had a trial evaluation of Rafael’s Spike missiles in India in 2011-2012, and in 2013 Ministry of Defense gave the go ahead to for procuring the missiles from Israel. The US la...

On November 23, Iranian Navy commander, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, revealed during his first press conference that Iran is planning to send its warships to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean in the near future according to NBC TV. “Our fleet of warships will be sent to the Atlantic Ocean in the near future and will visit one of the friendly states in South America and the Gulf of Mexico,” Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi said during the conference, according to the Iranian Fars news agency. Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi was appointed as the commander of the Iranian Navy by the Supreme Leader of Iran Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei on November 5. These promises are likely just a part of the ongoing propaganda war between the US and Iran. The Previous commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari made similar promises back in 2014. However, Sayyari later claimed that the Iranian Navy canceled its plan to send its warships to the Gulf of Mexico “due to a change in s...

On November 24, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out any place for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), in the upcoming Syrian National Dialogue conference in the Russian city of Sochi, according to the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News newspaper. “We discussed the issue of the Syria national dialogue congress in detail. We, as three countries, will decide on who will be invited to the congress. Sub-commissions established by our foreign ministries will make the necessary studies beforehand,” Erdoğan said during the press conference in Sochi. The Turkish president said that Turkey believes that all Syrian groups should be invited to the upcoming Syrian National Dialogue conference in Sochi. However, Erdogan stressed that Turkey’s position on “terrorist organizations such as the YPG and the PYD is clear”. Erdogan also said that he believes that Putin shares Turkey’s “sensitivity about the PYD and the YPG”, and ...

FILE IMAGE Translated from Russian. Originally appeared at  colonelcassad blog Following the meeting of Russia, Iran, and Turkey in Sochi, where the end of the war was announced and the beginning of the post-war regulation process meant to decide Syria’s future took place, the US media began reporting on the fact that the US plans to stay in Syria despite the collapse of ISIS, and also will use the Kurds to pressure al-Assad’s government. This has been mentioned repeatedly: despite officially supporting Syria’s territorial integrity, unofficially they try to strike back for their strategic failure at toppling al-Assad’s government, which was unsuccessful mainly thanks to Russia and Iran. Washington repeatedly voiced its dissatisfaction with the way war in Syria went, along with anxieties regarding the consequences for the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia concerning the growing role of Russia and Iran in the region. The White House does not state this officially, as the US und...

Russian warships are seen during a rehearsal for the Navy Day parade in Sevastopol, Crimea, July 24, 2015. REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov Russian military counterintelligence has detained a civilian employee of the Black Sea Fleet,  RIA  reports, citing an anonymous source. According to the source, the former fleet officer is suspected of “spying for another country”. The country he was sending information to was not specified. The man is detained, and the matter is being investigated according to the source. Local sources say that the detained person is likely an Ukrainian spy. Back in September two people from Crimea  were arrested  on suspicion of being spies for Ukraine. Allegedly they sent classified information about the Black Sea Fleet to Ukrainian special services. One of the arrested was a serviceman stationed in Crimea. Back in April the authorities  detained  a supposed Ukrainian spy in Samara. During interrogations, the man admitted collecti...