ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Arkadiy Babchenko 1.  On May 29, Ukrainian media reported that Arkadiy Babchenko, a Russian citizen and journalist living in Ukraine,  had been killed in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev . The Ukrainain government and the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) immediately accused Russia of being behind the attack. The mainstream media and international organizations joined the coverage of the incident blaming Russia for the killing. 2.  On May 30, Babchenko appeared to be alive and showed up at a press conference along with SBU Chief Sergey Gritsak and Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko. Gritsak claimed that the death of Babchenko had been staged in order to trace an organizer of the crime. The SBU once again accused Russia of being behind the alleged attempt to kill Babcheno. According to the initial SBU version. The organizer [identified as “G”] is detained; The hitman [identified as “C”] hired by the organier contacted the SBU to reval the crime; Russian intelligence recruite

The logo of Liwa Thuwar Idlib The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formed a new Arab force under the name “Liwa Thuwar Idlib”, the Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Shaam reported on June 1. According to the report, the new force will be led by former Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander “Iskandar Alaa” and will consist of more than 500 fighters, who had  previously served in the US-backed Army of Revolutionaries and Ahrar al-Zawiya. Iskandar Alaa Shaam claimed that the SDF will soon announce the formation of the new force in order to “liberate the governorate of Idlib”, which is currently under control of the former branch of al-Qaeda, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). This is not the first time when the SDF shows its interest in Idlib. On January 13, Saleh Muslim, a former leader of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), revealed during an interview that  the SDF is planning to enter Idlib in order to fight “terrorism” . However, the new force will not be able to appro

Illustrative image On May 31, the northern Syrian city of Jarabulus witnessed heavy clashes between the Ahrar al-Sham Movement on one side, and other Turkish-backed groups – the Northern Brigade, Ahrar al-Sharqiyah and the Sultan Murad Division – on the other side, according to Syrian opposition sources. Reportedly, a disagreement over money sparked the clashes. The Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Eldorar al-Shamia reported that three civilians had been killed and more than twenty others had been injured in the clashes. Several fighters of the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and other Turkish-backed groups were also killed. After four hours of clashes, the Turkish-backed Suqur al-Shamal group and civilian figures of Jarabulus proposed a ceasefire agreement that was accepted by the Ahrar al-Sham Movement and the three other groups. The Turkish-held areas in northern Aleppo witnessed several similar incidents this month. On May 6,  fighters of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah attacked gunmen from

On May 31, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross  announced  that Washington would impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the EU on June 1. CNBC ✔ @CNBC Commerce Secretary Ross: NAFTA talks 'didn't get far enough' for Mexico and Canada to avoid tariffs https:// trib.al/qVXXUub   16:26 - 31 May 2018 Commerce Secretary Ross: NAFTA talks 'didn't get far enough' for Mexico and Canada to avoid tariffs Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross shares his trade policy views on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Thursday. cnbc.com 7 25 people are talking about this Twitter Ads information and privacy In an interview to CNBC, Ross recalled that imposed in March tariffs of 25 % on steel and 10 % on aluminum will expire as scheduled on June 1. He stressed that “he is still looking forward to continuing negotiations” on the issue with his EU colleagues. However, in the case of Canada

On May 31, dozens of former fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the newly liberated northern Homs countryside surrendered their personal weapons and signed a reconciliation agreement with the Damascus government, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). The news agency also reported that local figures in the northern Homs countryside collected tons of weapons and handed them over to the SAA. Reportedly, the weapons included automatic rifles, sniper rifles, heavy machineguns, RPGs, mortars and loads of ammunition. More than 300 former fighters of the FSA in the northern Homs countryside joined the reconciliation process on May 23 . The reconciliation agreement,  which was reached on May 2 , guarantees that the Damascus government will pardon all the former fighters in northern Homs, if they join the reconciliation within six months. Syrian pro-government activists believe that thousands of former FSA fighters in the northern Homs countryside will join the reconcil

Written by  Hadi Gholami Nohouji For journalists and especially for those working at TV stations, it has never been easy to cover terrorism-related news, but things got much harder with the sudden advances made by the Islamic State (ISIS) in both Iraq and Syria in 2014, and the de facto establishment of its self-proclaimed Caliphate. ISIS, through its heavy reliance and use of social media as a propaganda tool, rapidly shocked the world with its savagery and barbarity. It continues to find new and horrifying ways of effectively “entertaining” the audience and attracting media attention. This violent group was by no means the first group to carry out such savage acts which it put on display through its social media accounts, but it was effectively the first to record (in a professional manner) and distribute them as means of getting fame and terrorizing the global community. One of the groups affected by the barbaric videos and images distributed by this group were and continue t

Written by  Brian Cloughley ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org After over sixteen years of foreign military occupation, Afghanistan, the fourth  most corrupt country  in the world, continues to be battered and blasted by war. Its citizens are victims of suicide attacks by insane savages and, according to the magazine  Stars and Stripes , the number of US bombs dropped on Afghanistan in March 2018 “was the highest for that month in five years. While ISIS is being pushed underground in Iraq and Syria, the number of fighters pledging loyalty to the group appears to be growing in Afghanistan.” But it isn’t only the ravages of war that are destroying the country. The social fabric is being terminally torn asunder by human rights violations that are either ignored or condoned by both the government and the US-NATO  military alliance amongst whose “ key functions ” is “Supporting the adherence to the principles of rule of law and good governance.” The US Special Inspecto