ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Soldiers stand guard along the main street of Mapandi village, Philippines June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco On March 31, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced in an official statement that its units had captured “Walton Jujirin”, a sub-leader of the ISIS-affiliated group Abu Sayyaf in the Patikul area of the southern province of Sulu. Jujirin was wounded and left behind by his four fighters when he was captured, according to the AFP. AFP units were reportedly conducting a security operation to rescue Philippines and foreign hostages from Abu Sayyaf in the Patikul area when the civilians informed them about the location of Jujirin. According to the AFP, Jujirin and his units are responsible for a series of IEDs attacks against the AFP in Sulu province. On March 30 only, three soldiers of the AFP were killed when their vehicle was targeted with an IED in Sulu, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. Click to see the full-size image The AFP intensifi

On March 31, an Israeli drone  crashed in southern Lebanon  as a result of a “technical failure”, according to the Israeli Army. Experts were able to identify the drone as the Hermes 450 medium size multi-payload Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) manufactured by the Israeli Elbit Systems company. Click to see the full-size image Unexpectedly, the Hermes 450 UAV remains in the crash site revealed that it had been armed with at least four projectiles. Israel don’t acknowledge that Hermes 450 is an armed UAV and its officials have refused to confirm the use of armed UAVs on many occasions before. Click to see the full-size image This is not the first time experts come across an evidence that proves the Israelis are operating armed UAVs. A report by the UK Government Communications Headquarters, which was leaked by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealed that some Israeli UAVs are indeed armed. A video from the report even showed an Israeli Heron TP UAV carrying a “mis

Written by  The Saker ; Originally appeared at  The Unz Review Europe: My honor is solidarity! “That tells you all you need to know about the difference between modern Britain and the government of Vladimir Putin. They make Novichok, we make light sabers. One a hideous weapon that is specifically intended for assassination. The other an implausible theatrical prop with a mysterious buzz. But which of those two weapons is really more effective in the world of today?”. (Boris Johnson) Let’s begin this discussion with a few, basic questions. Question one: does anybody sincerely believe that “Putin” (the collective name for the Russian Mordor) really attempted to kill a man which “Putin” himself had released in the past, who presented no interest for Russia whatsoever who,  like Berezovsky ,  wanted to return back to Russia , and that to do the deed “Putin” used a binary nerve agent? Question two: does anybody sincerely believe that the British have presented their “allies”

French troops are currently deplyoed at 5 military bases within the area controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, the Turksih state-run news agency Anadolu Agency says. According to Anadolu, over 70 French special forcesservice members are stationed at the Lafarge Cement factory near the Mistanur Hill and the village of Harab-Isk. The agency added that over 30 French servicemembers are operating in Raqqah. France’s 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment and 10th Parachute Commando forces also operate in the area. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) is a core of the SDF. Ankara describes the YPG as a terrorist group, a local branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).  Turkey has even recently conducted a large-scale military operation against the YPG in northwestern Syria and has captured the area of Afrin from it. Click to see the full-size image

ISIS fighters have carried out 13 ambushes against the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in the provinces of al-Anbar, Kirkuk, Diyala and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad over the last two weeks, according to an infographic released by the ISIS-linked newspaper al-Nab’a on March 29. Al-Nab’a claimed that 97 Iraqi fighters, including 7 commanders and officers, were killed and 13 others were captured by ISIS. ISIS fighters also destroyed 9 vehicles of the Iraqi Army and PMU and captured 7 others, according to al-Nab’a. Click to see the full-size image ISIS cells implement a variety of tactics to ambush the Iraqi Army and the PMU, including targeting their vehicles with IEDs or even setting fake checkpoints on key roads to kidnap or assassinate army soldiers and officers. Facing such a serious threat, the Iraqi Army, the PMU and security forces have launched a series of security operations against ISIS cells in northern and western Iraq since the beginning of

REUTERS/ Peter Nicholls Written by  J.Hawk   Introduction Given the international furor sparked by the poisoning, in an apparent attempt to murder, former GRU Colonel Skripal and his daughter, very public information has been released that would help ordinary citizens make up their minds on what happened. Scotland Yard has no suspects. In a country full of CCTV cameras, no images have been made public and no composite sketches, let alone photos, of persons of interest have been released. No images of Skripals have been released, and no Russian consular officials have been allowed to see them, in violation of international norms. Porton Down press release issued after preliminary investigation of samples only stated that the agent was a “Novichok class or a related agent”, which appears to narrow it down to the entire category of nerve agents. The British government refused Russia’s offer to assist in the investigation, and refused to share any evidence it claims to have gathe