ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has instructed the foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council over an incursion by Turkish troops in the north of the country. In a statement on his website, Al Abadi asked that the Security Council order Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country will not withdraw troops from a camp close to the Daesh-controlled city of Mosul, , despite strong objections from Baghdad. The deployed soldiers are not combat troops, but have been sent to protect soldiers providing training to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, Erdogan told reporters at a news conference that was broadcast live by TRT. Turkey is “determined” to continue the training, he added. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said on Friday that Turkey has decided in talks with Iraqi officials to “reorganise” its military personnel at the Bashiqa camp. Turkey’s Foreign Ministr

Could going out for a jog put national security at risk? If you’re in the military and you use a fitness tracker, the answer to that question appears to be yes as information published by athletic activity app Strava recently revealed secret U.S. military bases around the world. The website and mobile app, which connects to smartphones and wearable fitness trackers like Fitbits to track and share athletic activity online, found itself in the spotlight after  posting a heat map  that shows where its users run, bicycle and exercise. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of activity through popular streets and suburban parks, but it’s the little lights indicating activity that popped up in some of the world’s most remote locations that is posing a big problem. That’s because they inadvertently revealed the location of not only sensitive military sites but also the movements of intelligence operatives and international aid workers, among others. Moreover, tech-minded individuals were a

On February 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mocked the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and rejected the US criticism of Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch in the Syrian area of Afrin. “When are you going to finish with us asking the question, when did you finish your operations in Afghanistan? When did you finish your operations in Iraq? It’s been 18 years,” the president said at a meeting of his AK Party in the parliament, according to  Hurriyet newspaper . Erdogan continued saying that the US has “calculations against Turkey, Iran and maybe Russia” in Syria and described the US presence there as opportunistic. Erdogan also said that the US should to withdraw from the Syrian city of Manbij, which is now controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democrataic Forces (SDF), mostly consisting of Kurdish militias. He added that Turkish forces will return “to its true owners.” The existing diplomatic tensions between Washington and Ankara have grown further since the star

UPDATE:  The Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed  the attack and said that its forces had responded to “a new Israeli aggression”. “The general command of the armed forces holds Israel fully responsible for the dangerous consequences for its repeated, aggressive and uncalculated adventures,” the military said in a statement. According to the released statement, the attack took place at 3:42 local time. *** Israel Breaking @IsraelBreaking BREAKING: Israeli raids reported in vicinity of Syrian capital of Damascus. Explosions heard, surface to air responses reported. 04:02 - 7 Feb 2018 105 154 people are talking about this Twitter Ads information and privacy Overnight on February 7, the Israeli Air Force fired three missiles at a target in the Damascus countryside. The strike was allegedly aimed at a technology research center in the Jemraya area. According to pro-government sources, the Syrian Air Defense Forces shot down at

On February 6,  the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) accused the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) of using shells containing chlorine gas in the Bulbul district in the Syrian area of Afrin . In turn, the YPG released own statement saying that the Turksih Army was the side that used chemical weapons. According to the YPG, the Turkish military accidentally shelled allied FSA fighters. The statement released by the YPG’s media wing ( source ): The occupying Turkish state and the terrorist groups under their control claim that chemical weapons were used by the YPG in order to fabricate a cover for their fiasco in the north of Afrin. On the contrary, the Turkish army, which suffered heavy blows during our operations in the Şêkurzê area, bombed the area with artillery shells from chemical weapons. Our forces moved to high points after being subjected to the effects of the weapon during conflict, and the Turkish-backed terrorists left on the ground were affected by the wea

Washington still thinks it's calling the shots—and we'll fight forever to prove it. By Charles V. Peña   Speaking at the Hoover Institute, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  laid out  the Trump administration’s vision for “a stable, unified, and independent Syria, free of terrorist threats and free of weapons of mass destruction.” Such a vision sounds a lot like what previous administrations said about Iraq and Afghanistan, which should be cause for worry. Afghanistan has become America’s longest running war and we still have troops in Iraq more than a decade after what some war supporters said would be a “ cakewalk .” Moreover, a long-term U.S. military presence in both those countries has not made them stable or unified—and nothing indicates they will be anytime soon. Nonetheless, Secretary Tillerson made clear that “[t]he United States will maintain a military presence in Syria” that is “conditions-based.” But why commit to do in Syria what we haven’t been able to accom

A photo of the Taliban special forces with western weapons. On January 31, Taliban fighters attacked a joint position of the Afghan Army and the NATO around the city of Mehtarlam, the capital of the eastern Laghman province, according to the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad. The agency said that seven Afghan soldiers were killed and five armored vehicles of the Afghan Army were destroyed by Taliban fighters. Taliban fighters also killed five Afghan soldiers and injured six others during a series of hit and run attacks on several checkpoints of the Afghan Army and Police in the district of Alishang in the province of Laghman. The Voice of Jihad also reported that Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy of the Afghan Army in Shalgar district of Ghazni province, also in eastern Afghanistan, on February 1. Twelve Afghan Army soldiers were reportedly killed and nine others were injured in the attack. Taliban fighters also destroyed four armored vehicles of the Afghan Army, accordin

North Korea may be run by a deranged, tyrannical psychopath, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a direct threat to the United States and the people that live here. During an interview with “CBS This Morning” earlier this week, CIA Director  Mike Pompeo  placed a significant amount of emphasis on a new report that suggests that the North Korean regime will be able to strike the United States with a nuclear warhead in just a “handful of months.” Previously, the intelligence community thought that North Korea wouldn’t be able to launch a successful nuclear strike on the United States for at least a year, but now it appears that there is less time than the U.S. government originally thought. (Related:  Watch this video lecture from the Health Ranger on how North Korea can exterminate 90% of the U.S. population .) “Here’s what we can say,” the CIA director said in the interview. “We can always identify that the program is continuing. …We’ll never know the exact nature of what’s