ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On January 20, ISIS fighters launched a rapid attack on positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies south of the Syrian capital, Damascus and captured several key buildings in al-Zain neighborhood between the Yarmouk refugee camp and Yalda district, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The media outlet added that ISIS fighters killed three members of HTS and its allies. From its side, Syrian opposition sources revealed that most of al-Zain is now under control of ISIS as HTS and its allies failed to hold their positions inside it. The strategic neighborhood will allow ISIS fighters to launch attacks inside Yalda district located only 2km west of the Damascus airport highway. Video Player 00:00 00:40 HTS and several armed groups linked to the Palestinian Hamas Movement refused to withdraw from the districts of Aqraba, Beit Sahm, Yalda and Babila on December 2017. In response, hundreds of locals who are facing the threat of the nearb

There is a  growing consensus among many observers in Washington that the national security agencies have become completely politicized  over the past seventeen years and are now pursuing selfish agendas that actually endanger what remains of American democracy. As Philip Giraldi notes,  up until recently it has been habitual to refer to such activity as the Deep State, which is perhaps equivalent to the Establishment in that it includes financial services, the media, major foundations and constituencies, as well as lobbying groups, but  we are now witnessing an evolutionary process in which the national security regime is exercising power independently . Nowhere is that “independence” of the ‘state within a state’ more evident than in the blatant and egregious news this week that The National Security Agency destroyed surveillance data it pledged to preserve  in connection with pending lawsuits and apparently never took some of the steps it told a federal court it had taken to

Illustrative image Units of the Turkish Ground Forces entered Syria’s Afrin area at 11:05 AM Sunday, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has announced,  according to the Turksih media . Ground units crossed the border from  Turkey’s Kilis . “The operation will have four stages, there will be a 30-kilometer buffer zone,” Yıldırım said commenting the development. Meanwhile, members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army attacked positions of YPG/YPJ militias in the same area. The advance followed a major artillery and air bombardment campaign of the Turkish military against Kurdish forces in the area. On Saturday,  the Turkish Armed Forces officially announced the start of “Operation Olive Branch”  to combat what Ankara calls “terrorism” in the area. Turkish forces shell YPG positions:

AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE On January 19, forces loyal to Saudi-backed Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi backed and the Saudi-led coalition captured Ba’arf Mount in Nati’ district of the central province of al-Bayda, according to the UAE-based al-Arabiya TV. Saudi-led coalition warplanes supported the pro-Hadi forces attack and destroyed several positions of the Houthis in the province. Al-Arabiya said that several fighters of the Houthis were killed in the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes including a high rank commander “Abu Sam al-Kahlani”. Yemeni sources also reported that pro-Hadi forces ambushed a group of the Houthis in Sawma’ah district of al-Bayda. Two fighters of the Houthis were reportedly killed in the ambush. From its side, the Yemeni al-Masirah TV claimed that the Houthis repelled two attacks of pro-Hadi forces in the districts of Masra’ and Nati’. The Houthis killed several fighters and of pro-Hadi forces including a commander “Saleh al-Duribi” while repe

File photo: AFP On January 19, ISIS fighters ambushed a vehicle of the Egyptian Army south of the city of Rafah in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The outlet added  that ISIS fighters were able to capture the vehicle and kill a contractor of the Egyptian Army in the ambush. Moreover, Amaq reported that ISIS fighters destroyed another vehicle of the Egyptian Army with an IED in al-Dakasat area west of the city of Sheikh Zuweid in the norther part of the Sinai Peninsula. Meanwhile, the UK-based newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed revealed that the Egyptian Army began massing its troops around the city of Rafah in order to launch a wide-scale military operation against ISIS cells operating south and west of it. The upcoming military operation of the Egyptian Army is expected to be the biggest yet against the terrorist group in the Sinai Peninsula and will target the main hideouts of the terrorist group inside and around Rafah,

A HARROWING warning on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack from North Korea has been announced by the Head of the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Last weekend people across Hawaii scrambled for safety when a warning message about an inbound missile was sent to mobile phones and shown on television. Now, the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness has claimed that not enough people are prepared for what to do if a missile strike was imminent. Dr. Irwin Redlener said: “It’s a real possibility. “City officials should be talking about what their citizens should do if an attack happened. “And it’s a necessity for individuals and families to talk about and develop their own plan of what they would do.” The centre has claimed that the mistaken Hawaii warning acts as the perfect opportunity to teach people what to do if there is an attack. Korean War video reveals how the US was modernised by the conflict Sat,