ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

File image On June 20, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies launched a limited military operation against ISIS in the eastern Homs countryside and secured 2,500km2 between the city of Palmyra and the town of Hamimah. A source in the SAA told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that the SAA secured the following areas in eastern Homs during the operation: Tell al-Kibd, Irtiwaziyat al-Akfan, Bir al-Akfan, Tulul al-Jabri, Tulul al-Habari, Bir al-Tayariyah, Bir al-Wurud, Bir Zuid, Bir al-Samadiyah, Bir Atshan, Bir Sijar, Bir al-Bathiyah, Saad al-Waer, Bir Makr al-Waer. The SAA also advanced in the southern and southwestern Deir Ezzor countryside securing 1,200km2 between the areas of Faydat ibn Muiny’a, the T-2 station, M’aizliyah and Dahrat Wadi al-Miyah, according to the SANA. A week earlier,  the SAA launched a similar military operation  during which its forces secured 2,000km2 in the western Deir Ezzor countryside, including Faydat ibn Muiny’a. These lim...

Written by  Tom Luongo ; Originally appeared on  tomluongo.me I’ve told you that once you start down the Trade War path forever will it dominate your destiny. Well here we are.  Trump slaps big tariffs on aluminum and steel in a bid to leverage Gary Cohn’s  ICE Wall plan to control the metals and oils futures markets .   I’m not sure how much of this stuff I believe but it is clear that the futures price for most strategically important commodities are divorced from the real world. Alistair Crooke also noted the importance of Trump’s  ‘energy dominance’ policy recently , which I suggest strongly you read. But today’s edition of “As the Trade War Churns” is about China and their willingness to shift their energy purchases away from U.S. producers.   Irina Slav at Oilprice.com  has the good bits. The latest escalation in the tariff exchange, however, is a little bit different than all the others so far.  It’s different b...

A screenshot from the video Egyptian forces have killed at least 32 militants in two separate operations in the province of Northern Sinai, according to a statement released by the country’s military. According to the statement, the Egyptian Air Force alos destroyed two vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition and 21 hideouts of the terrorists. In February, the Egyptian Army and security forces launched a wide-scale operation against militants, mostly members of ISIS, in Northern Sinai. According to data from the Egyptian military, 318 militants and 37 military personnel have so far been killed. The operation is still ongoing. A total of 272 hideouts of militants were discovered and destroyed, and 250 wanted criminals and suspects were detained.

Iron Dome Origins Since its inception, Israel has faced difficult political and military challenges. It defines the operational space in which IDF exists, the nature of development of its armed forces, and of individual weapons systems it uses. The key objective and permanent factors include: Israel’s geography, with the 470km-long country being no more than 135km wide. Hostile environment, including unresolved territorial disputes with neighbors and the Palestinian problem. Close proximity to borders of major cities and critical infrastructure. At the same time, Israel did not treat its adversaries’ ability to use rockets as a priority for a long time, therefore establishing a comprehensive ABM system was not among its priorities either. The situation changed after the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq struck Israeli cities using improved Soviet R-17 (NATO classification SS-1b Scud-B) ballistic missiles. At that time, US Patriot PAC-2 ABM systems were used to protect Israeli cit...

Written by  Brian Kalman  exclusively for  SouthFront ; Brian Kalman is a management professional in the marine transportation industry. He was an officer in the US Navy for eleven years. Introduction Although the U.S. State Department’s direct role in stoking the Maidan conflagration and toppling a democratically elected president is widely accepted as part of the historical record of the political and civil upheaval in Ukraine, little is reported about the initial and ever evolving U.S. military presence in the country. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s intercepted phone calls and former U.S. President Barrack Obama’s public admission of the U.S. government’s $5 billion investment in funding fundamentally altering Ukraine’s political, economic and cultural alignment in the world received coverage, even by western main stream media. What has not received extensive media scrutiny is the involvement of the U.S. mil...