ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

A damaged vehicle of the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is removed after an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip March 13, 2018. Source: MOHAMMED SALEM/ REUTERS An improvised explosive device exploded on March 13 morning near a convoy carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in the Gaza Strip. Hamdallah was unharmed but several people were lightly wounded in the incident. Later on the same day, however, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke with Hamdallah and the two agreed that Israel and its collaborators had been responsible for the attack. General Tawfiq Abu Naim, head of Gaza’s Interior Ministry, will lead the investigation into the incident. The Interior Ministry said several suspects had been arrested. A manhunt is still ongoing.

The Syrian Arab Army has seized coin machines used by ISIS to produce own coins in the village of Al-Hasrat in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Defense Ministry reported on March 13. The ministry also released a video showing machines and coins seized in the area. According to the video, the machines had been likely produced in Turkey and then trafficed into Syria. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image

On March 13, the US threatened to strike Syrian government forces in the Damascus countryside.   On March 14, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it will act in response if lives of the Russian servicemen are endangered.  In terms of the actual failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, the threat of a direct armed conflict between Russia and the United States is becoming more and more of a reality. In simulating a possible armed conflict between the Armed Forces of the involved countries, we can state with some confidence that it will commence with a series of provocative actions. Possibilities include air strikes of “unknown aircraft” on civilians, the use of chemical weapons, destruction of humanitarian convoys, “shooting” at military aircraft or ships of the coalition forces, and possibly even encompassing their complete destruction. The United States and Western countries will undoubtedly accuse the Syrian or Russian Armed Forces of ...

China’s government has been relatively vocal in transforming itself into a serious threat against the West — by modernizing its military in anticipation of future wars with Washington. It it therefore not surprising when the official  Xinhua  news agency reports that China will increase its defense budget by 8.1 percent in 2018, up marginally from last year’s 7 percent. China has undoubtedly given America’s military-industrial complex and clueless politicians in Washington a stern message,  by increasing its defense budget to the highest levels in more than three years, even as the country insists it does not mean harm. According to the annual budget report, submitted to the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress Monday, the 2018 defense budget will be 1.11 trillion yuan (approximately 175 billion U.S. dollars). In 2017, the country spent roughly 1.02 trillion yuan (approximately 161.87 billion dollars) on its military budget in 2017, o...

The Sudan and the countries of the African Horn are not as well known as the Syria, Irak, Yemen or Libya as a springboard for confrontations, but no less important, and for the problems of water distribution of the Nile it is key. The alliance of the UAE and Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Israel, the USA and other external players confront each other in Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and such states of the African interior as Uganda and Ethiopia, where Islamist terrorist groups and Iran are active. The events taking place in the region are described based on materials from the Middle East Institute (MEI) expert A. Bystrov. Confusion in Somalia On January 3, the Somali Prime Minister Hasan Ali Khayre, upon the recommendation of President Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed, dismissed the ministers of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Garaad Omar, of Internal Affairs A.F. Sayyid and Trade K.A. Duale. They were replaced by the Somali Ambassador to the U.S. Ahm...

A screenshot from the video showing Avangard missile system The Russian Defense Ministry has signed a contract on the serial production of the state of the art hypersonic missile system Avangard, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on March 12 in an interview with the defense ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. The Russian state-run news agency TASS provided more details on the advanced weapon system ( source ): Maneuvering warhead According to open sources, the guided hypersonic warhead (the spacehead) of the Avangard intercontinental ballistic missile system is codenamed 15Yu71. It was developed as part of the R&D work “4202” by specialists of the Military and Industrial Corporation “Research and Production Association of Machine-Building” (the town of Reutov) under the guidance of Chief Designer Pavel Sudyukov. Russia’s Federal Space Agency acted as the customer for the R&D work “4202.” Compared to traditional warheads of intercontinental ba...

Illustrative image On March 11, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced in a statement released by its official news agency Iba’a that the Syrian Liberation Front (SLF) had broken  the 48 hour-long ceasefire agreement, which was reached on March 9 . HTS also accused the SLF of conducting a series of attacks against its fighters during the ceasefire. Later, several Syrian opposition sources confirmed that HTS had resumed its attack against the SLF around the villages of al-A’jil and Bsarton in western Aleppo. Iba’a agency reported that HTS fighters had destroyed a SLF vehicle armed with 23mm and had captured several SLF fighters. From its side, the SLF revealed in an official statement that HTS had rejected all the initiatives, which had been presented to it in order to end the ongoing conflict in northern Syrian peacefully. The SLF statement confirmed that HTS had only accepted the ceasefire agreement to reorganize its fighters and to launch a new attack. The SLF-linked n...