ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On December 2, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced that it has formed a Sharia committee from six Sheikhs that will work to solve the problems between HTS and  al-Qaeda members arrested by the HTS leadership on November 27 . According to the official HTS statement, the committee will release all Al-Qaeda leaders after guarantying that the both sides will not work against each other anymore. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had accused HTS and its leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani of betraying their oath of allegiance (bayat) to al-Qaeda in an official 35-minute audio message on November 28. Al-Zawahiri also revealed that al-Qaeda didn’t release HTS from its allegiance to it yet. When HTS arrested al-Qaeda members, many Syrian activists warned that HTS’s only goal is to distance from al-Qaeda. This may help the terrorist group to get the support from the Western block as the main “opposition” power. Experts also doubted that the HTS leadership could dare to take serious measures a

The Yemeni capital, Sana’a, witnessed heavy clashes between the Houthis and the supporters of their ally – former Yemen President Ali Abdallah Saleh – during the last three days, according to Yemeni sources. Several fighters from the both sides were killed or injured as a result of the clashes. On December 2, Yemeni sources reported that the clashes between Abdallah Saleh supporters and the Houthis spreaded into Hajjah province and several other areas. The clashes between the two allies first broke out on November 29 when the Houthis attacked and captured the Saleh mosque in Sana’a. The  site was used by Abdallah Saleh supporters as a HQ, according to local sources. The main motive of the Houthis is still unknown, and many experts claimed that it is nothing more than a “show of power”, especially that the Houthis withdraw from the mosque hours later. Abdallah Saleh criticize the Houthis, and said that he is ready to talk with the Saudi-led coalition on December 2. Many Yemeni

North Korea launched its Hwasong-15 ICBM into the waters west of Japan at 3:17 am local time on Wednesday.  Barely six minutes later, South Korean artillery, air force, and Navy sprang into action and began firing missiles into the waters off eastern Korea – yet another military show of force meant to intimidate the North into ceasing its missile strikes. The retaliatory display was calibrated to target a spot in the waters off the Korean peninsula that was exactly as far away as Pyongsong, a town about 20 miles north of Pyongyang where the Hwasong 15 was reportedly launched. The distance was meant to signify that the South Korean military could destroy the North’s missile launchers if it chose to do so, the  Wall Street Journal. But while the precision strike probably impressed any bystanders who were watching, in reality, the South’s technology for detecting and responding to North Korean missile launches is still unreliable. But detecting missile tests is an imperfect scie

Click to see the full-size image Chairman of Committee on Defense and Security of the Russian Federation Council and former Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev  evaluated  the upgrades of the Mi-28 helicopters. “Mi-28s were improved thanks to Syria. Well, [the pilots] say that some things became better, but not all things — the electronics are severely lacking: pilots can’t see, pilots can’t hear a thing. The pilots call the goggles they wear “pilot’s death”. If the sky is clear, then it’s fine. If there’s some smoke, then you get red eyes for three days,” the senator said. Bondarev voiced these criticisms at a hearing regarding the military-industrial complex and military trade laws as a reaction to the industry’s complaints of insufficient support to experimental developments. The Mi-28 is an all-weather, day-night, military tandem, two-seat anti-armor attack helicopter. It carries a single gun, plus external loads carried on pylons beneath stub win

Click to see the ful-size map On December 1, the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu revealed the location of 13 ammo depots in the provinces of al-Hasakah, Raqqa and Aleppo where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are storing the weapons and ammunition received from the US-led coalition. The 13 large ammo depots of the SDF are located in Afrin, Ain al-Arab, Sirrin, Harab Isk, Chalabiya, Tal Abyad, Soluk, Dirbasiya, Gibse, Tal Baidar, Zone 47, al-Hul and Maliqiyya, according to the report. Syrian pro-government sources confirmed the information provided by the Turkish meida. According to them, Maliqiyya and Tal Baidar are the biggest ammo depots of the SDF. The Anadolu agency also revealed that the SDF is mainly receiving weapons and ammunition form the US-led coalition through the Semalka border crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The Iraqi side of Semalka is currently under the control of Kurdish Peshmerga forces. However, the Iraqi federal government is plan

North Korea has now demonstrated the ability to strike nearly every major city in the United States with either a nuclear warhead or a high-altitude EMP weapon. At risk are hundreds of millions of Americans who would find themselves at very high risk of being killed in the aftermath of an EMP attack due to mass starvation, social unrest and the spread of disease. In this video lecture, I cover the facts about North Korea’s current  nuclear capability , explaining how the regime is now able to deliver large, weaponized payloads over very long distances. Because of this shocking advancement in North Korea’s technology — combined with Kim Jong-Un’s repeated threats to nuke specific U.S. cities — all Americans are now in the crosshairs of a nuclear-capable madman who leads a national cult of delusional followers. Even worse, we’re running out of options. Diplomacy has never worked with North Korea, and economic sanctions aren’t halting nuclear weapons development. The only remaini

On November 30, the Yemeni Missile Forces loyal to the Houthis announced that it has tasted a new medium range ballistic missile. According to the statement a Saudi Army military base was successfully targeted with the missile as part of the test. However, Colonel Turki al-Maliki spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen announced that the Royal Saudi Air Defense (RSADF) had successfully intersepted the ballistic missile over the city of Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, only 110km away from the border with Yemen. A video published by Saudi activists showed the RSADF firing at least one MIM-104 Patriot air defense missile from a position in Khamis Mushait to intercept the Houthis ballistic missile. Other local sources confirmed that the missile was successfully intercepted before hitting a military base in Khamis Mushait and released a video of the missile wreckage. The Houthis had launched dozens of ballistic missiles against Saudi Arabia since the beginning of

Written by  The Saker  for  The Unz Review I am often asked if the US and Russia will go to war with each other. I always reply that they are already at war. Not a war like WWII, but a war nonetheless. This war is, at least for the time being, roughly 80% informational, 15% economic and 5% kinetic. But in political terms the outcome for the loser of this war will be no less dramatic than the outcome of WWII was for Germany: the losing country will not survive it, at least not in its present shape: either Russia will become a US colony again or the AngloZionist Empire will collapse. In my very first column for the Unz review entitled “ A Tale of Two World Orders ” I described the kind of multipolar international system regulated by the rule of law Russia, China and their allies and friends (whether overt or covert) worldwide are trying to build and how dramatically different it was from the single World Hegemony and AngloZionist attempted to establish worldwide (and almost successf