ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On October 28, a convoy of the Turkish military, consisting of more than 20 armored vehicles, trucks and engineering vehicles, arrived in the opposition-held part of the northern Hama countryside, according to the Syrian news outlet Enab Baladi. The pro-opposition news outlet said that the new troops were deployed in the Turkish observation posts in the towns of Murak and Shir Mughar. The Turkish military established these posts earlier this year as a part of an agreement reached during the Astana talks. Earlier this month, Syrian opposition sources reported that  the Turkish military is strengthening its observation posts  within the demilitarized zone around the northern governorate of Idlib, which has been established under the Russian-Turkish  deconfliction agreement . Instead of forcing radical militants to withdraw from the demilitarized zone, Turkey appears to be taking advantage of the deconfliction agreement to boost its influence in the opposition-held ...

he “Adir” jets first flight in Israel. Pictured: “Adir” jet and F-16I “Sufa”. Photo by: Maj. Ofer On October 28, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) announced that one of its warplanes targeted three Palestinians who had approached the security fence in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The IAF claimed that the Palestinians were “terrorists” who were attempting to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) near the fence. “Today – 3 Gazans placed an explosive device on the border fence with Israel, ON GROUND … We responded by firing towards the terrorists,” the Israeli military said on Twitter. Few hours later, Palestinian sources revealed that three children were killed in the Israeli airstrike, which targeted them east of the area of Deir al-Balah. The victims were identified as 14-year old “Khalid Bassam Mahmood Abu Saaid,” 13-year old “Abd al-Hamid Mohamad Abd al-Aziz Abu Taher” and 13-year old “Mohamad Ibrahim Abdullah al-Satri.” Palestinian fighters may respond to this i...

The weakness in Germany’s political establishment became more obvious after the Hesse state regional elections on October 28 th . German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won the elections, according to the preliminary polls. However, it was with a large drop in support. CDU received 27% of the votes, which is 11.3% lower than the vote it received in 2013. Pre-election polls predicted a worse result. The result allows incumbent state premier and Merkel ally Volker Bouffier a mandate to form the next government. Click to see the full-size image The Social Democrats (SPD) suffered a similar drop, claiming 19.8 percent of the vote — the party’s worst result in Hesse since 1946. This may lead to SPD quitting its grand coalition with conservatives at the national level. There are two big winners from the Hesse election: The Greens and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The Greens rose more than 8% to 19.8% in comparison to their results from five yea...

Illustrative image At the late Hours of October 25, ISIS cells in the area of al-Safa, north of the governorate of al-Suwayda, handed over the bodies of 50 Syrian soldiers, who were killed during clashes there, to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), according to the Syrian news outlet Enab Baladi. From its side, the Damascus government returned the bodies of 15 ISIS fighters and allowed 4 trucks carrying food and other supplies to enter al-Safa. These steps are a part of the wider agreement to end the presence of the terrorist group in al-Safa and release more than 20 hostages, who were abducted by ISIS elements during  a brutal attack  in late July. Under the agreement,  the first 6 hostages were released last week  in exchange for 25 people affiliated with ISIS. A source familiar with the situation told the al-Suwayda 24 blog that the U.S. is a part of the agreement with ISIS. According to the source, the US-led coalition released several ISIS members from its p...

Illustrative image This analysis is made by  Pentapostagma Enimerosis  and translated exclusively for  SouthFront As Turkey escalates in the Eastern Mediterranean the real question is how determined Greece is to respond. Greece is confronting a huge diplomatic and military dilemma after Turkey sent a seismic vessel to the eastern Mediterranean to allegedly explore the existence of natural gas deposits. The vessel began investigating on Tuesday night (16.10.2018) before withdrawing temporarily after the Greek Navy sent a strict radio alert. After the incident, Turkey sent three frigates and two patrol ships there to protect the movements of their own seismographic ship. Turkey, however, seems to be pushing tension by sending Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa vessel to explore in an area that includes part of the continental shelf of Greece. If Barbaros returns to Greek waters, however,  Athens will face a dilemma : either issue another radio alert or increase ...

Illustrative image US National Security Advisor John Bolton visited Moscow on October 22 nd . The visit and discussions that followed happened 48 hours after US President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Defense News cited experts who are concerned that the US could possibly also withdraw from the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was signed in 2010 between the US and Russia. It limits the deployed forces of both nations to 1,550 nuclear warheads over 700 delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. National Public Radio’s David Welna also was skeptical about the future of the new START treaty, following the INF withdrawal. When he was asked about the treaty, while in Moscow, Bolton said that the US government is “currently considering” its position on the agreement. He, however, said that the Trump administration “...

FILE IMAGE: Reuters / Amir Cohen The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the country’s leadership are openly preparing for a military operation against the Palestinain movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. During the past week,  the IDF deployed over 60 battle tanks and armoured vehicles as well as additional troops in the area near a security fence at the contact-line between the Israeli-controlled area and the Gaza Strip.  Earlier, Israel also declared a new policy towards Gaza officially allowing stronger military actions against any “hostile” actions by the protestors or Hamas. Meanwhile, the Israeli top leadership is openly calling for an invasion in Gaza. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is among the key supporters of the operation. “ Wars are only conducted when there is no choice, and now there is no choice ,” Lieberman told the parliament on October 22. He repeatedly claimed that Tel Aviv had exhausted the “other options” to stabilize the sitautio...

A screenshot from the video RT released a translation of the documentary on Russia’s state-of-the-art Mi-28UB combat training helicopter produced by the Russian Defense Ministry’s TV network “Zvezda”. The Mi-28UB  is designed by the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. It is based on the Mi-28NE Night Hunter combat helicopter and is often used to train military pilots that require flight practice on Mi-28NE Night Hunter helicopters. The Mi-28UB was officially revealed to the public at the International Aviation and Space Salon in 2013. The Russian military is going to acquire up to 60 helicopter of this type.