ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By the Turkish Army, click to see the full-size image On March 21, the Turkish Army and its proxies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) captured the historical Christian town of Barad and the village of Kimar south of the city of Afrin, according to sources linked to the FSA. The sources said that the Turkish Army artillery had backed the attack on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Barad and had shelled several positions of the SAA and the YPG in the town and south of it. However, the Turkish Air Force (TAF) was not involved in the offensive. In a related development, local residents of the Afrin area handed over 21 fighters of the YPG to the Turkish Army, according to a report of the Turkish Anadolu Agency. Since  capturing Afrin city on March 18 , the Turkish Army and its proxies have been conducting security operations in the newly captured area in order to eliminate any remaining YPG fighters. By the Turkish Army, click to see th

Over the last week ISIS fighters had managed to capture the neighborhood of al-Asali and 90% of al-Madaniyah neighborhood in the al-Qadam district south of the Syrian capital of Damascu, according to an infographic released by the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq on March 21. Click to see the full-size image Amaq also claimed that ISIS fighters had killed 173 soldeirs of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and had destroyed 2 battle tanks, a rocket launcher, a bulldozer and a BMP-1 armored vehicle during their advance in al-Qadam district . Syrian pro-government sources have acknowledged that the SAA and the Syrian Military Intelligence lost around 100 fighters along with a battle tank and a BMP-1 armored vehicle in the al-Qadam district. The high casualties of the SAA in al-Qadam were a result of the bad timing and terms of the evacuation agreement with opposition fighters in the district, according to pro-government sources. Currently, the SAA is deploying more units to its positions

On March 21, a suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul University in the Afghan capital of Kabu, according to the Chinese Xinhua News Agency. The media outlet said that the bomber had been trying to target a celebration which had been held in a Shiite Shrine near the university. “A terrorist tied explosive device in his body obviously was going to target Sakhi Shrine where thousands of people were gathered to celebrate Nawroz or the solar new year of 1397,” a unnamed Afghan official told Xinhua News Agency. According to the Afghan TOLO TV, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health revealed that 29 people had been killed and 52 others were injured in a suicide attack in Kabul. The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq confirmed that the terrorist organization had been behind the suicide attack. Amaq claimed that over 100 Shiite civilians had been killed and injured in the attack. Click to see the full-size image This was the third and most brutal attack, which hit the Afghan capi

Originally appeared at Zero Hedge In yet another sign of what Russia expert Stephen Cohen has described as the escalating  New Cold War , non-NATO aligned Sweden is initiating detailed plans to  ready itself for total societal mobilization in response to military attack from a major external power.  As Aaron Mehta points out in his exclusive for  Defense News  entitled  Fortress Sweden: Inside the plan to mobilize Swedish society against Russia , that major external power is none other than Russia,  whose heavily militarized port of Kaliningrad lies a little over 220 miles across the ocean from Sweden. During past Cold War decades, Sweden (along with other non-NATO Nordic country Finland) was known for keeping painstakingly detailed survival readiness plans in case of a great power invasion, down to “how parking garages were designed so you could use them as shelters” according to Magnus Nordenman of the Atlantic Council. But the program was left derelict after the collapse of the

Chemical weapon production facilities and 40 tons of poisonous substances have been found in areas liberated from militants in Syria. “The Syrian Foreign Ministry pointed out that more than 40 tons of poisonous substances were found on the territories, liberated from terrorists,” Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, said on March 21. Kirillov made his comment during a press conference in Moscow concerning the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. The U.K. and some Western states accuse Russia of being behind the incident. Kirillovrecalled the case of Khan Shaykhun (Syria) and said that said the UK and Western states are prepared to use any means necessary to discredit Russia. The alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun took place on April 4, 2017 in an area controlled by militant groups, mostly Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda). Up to 100 civilians were al

Admiral Nakhimov Written by  Alexandr Shishkin ; Originally appeared at  Vzglyad ; Translated by  AlexD  exclusively for  SouthFront A few years ago, the Navy actively pushed the concept of “new ship in the old body”, a radical reconstruction of Soviet-built ships with new armaments and electronics. A whole group of ships was sent for upgrades, but now we can say that all these plans failed completely. How did it happen and who should be held accountable? At the beginning of the 2010s advances in the Russian military steel construction caused a kind of euphoria.  Its typical manifestations were, for example, ideas of resuming the production of missile trains, ekranoplans, hovercrafts and an almost universal deep modernisation of the main ship composition, inherited from the USSR. A technical project was approved in 2012, providing for the tripling of ammunition of the nuclear submarines of Project 949A for the replacement of the complex “Granit” for “Onyx” and “Kalibr”. Acco

Four people have been arrested with 1.4 kg of a nuclear substance, californium, in their car in the Turkish city of Ankara, the country’s state-run media reproted on March 19. The security forces raid was conducted on a tip-off. Californium is a synthetic substeance used in nuclear reactors. It got its name from the University of California, where it had been originally synthesized. Accordign to Turkish broadcaster NTV, the suspects were reportedly aiming to sell the cache of 1.441 kg of the element for $72 million on the black market.

Sergey Shoigu Three attempts of usage of chemical weapons were prevented in Syria last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during a video conference on March 20. “ There is a possibility that terrorists will use poisonous substances in order to accuse the Syrian troops of using chemical weapons in the future ,” the minister added. He also drew attention to an increased activity of the US-led coalition and attempts by militants to stage provocations. HINT:   An obvious place for possible militant provocations in the Damascus subrub of Eastern Ghouta where the Syrian Army’s military operation against militant groups is now ongoing. Shoigu said that over 65% of Eastern Ghouta has been liberated by government forces and 79,655 people have been evacuated from the combat area so far. “Currently, under the leadership of the Russian Reconciliation Center, an unprecedented humanitarian operation is being conducted in Eastern Ghouta. Over the last 5 days, 79,65