ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley visits with Soldiers serving with the Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) Support to Corps and Below (CSCB) Team, 780th Millitary Intelligence Brigade presently training at the National Training Center (NTC), Ft. Irwin, Calif., May 9, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Chuck Burden) The US is searching military analysts to monitor Russian social media and assist in “operations planning” to influence the Russian public opinion,  according to data collected by EDaily . COLSA Corporation published three job offers for “Russian Social Media Analysts”. The applicants have to have “Bachelor’s degree, military intelligence training or equivalent experience” and be ready to pass “security clearance” and participate in “operations planning”. “The selected applicant will read, analyze, and draft communications regarding regional and ideological discussions in specified foreign language media environments. The analyst will...

The news agency TASS reports ( source ): Provocations with the use of toxic chemicals are being planned in some regions in Syria, in particular in the Aleppo region, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry, said on Wednesday. “Besides, similar provocations [with toxic chemicals – TASS] are being planned in other Syrian regions,” Konashenkov said. “Yesterday, residents of the Aleppo province informed [us] that militants were preparing another action. Members of the White Helmets organization have arrived at populated localities of Azaz, Marea and Chobanbei carrying professional video equipment. Along with this, tanks with poisonous substances, allegedly chlorine gas, have been brought in.” Russian military are closely watching the situation, he said. “For this purpose, six vehicles of radiation, chemical and biological intelligence have been redeployed and arrayed at Russian outposts in immediate proximity to the Idlib demilitarized zone,” h...

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 “...