ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Illustrative image On October 31, ISIS claimed that its fighters had repelled a new attack by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies on their positions in the heavily fortified area of al-Safa. According to the terrorist group news agency, Amaq, 33 soldiers and officers of the SAA were killed and injured during the clashes in the area, which is located north of the governorate of al-Suwayda. Amaq’s claims are yet to be confirmed or denied by any pro-government source. Two days ago,  ISIS repelled a similar SAA attack  killing and injuring four Syrian soldiers. Back then, the terrorists targeted a battle tank and a military bulldozer of the army with anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). The source of these advanced weapons has not been determined yet. The Damascus government and ISIS cells in al-Safa reached an agreement earlier this month to release around 30 hostages, who were abducted by the terrorist group  in late July . However, ISIS violated the agreement after  rele

The youngest brother of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has returned from self-imposed exile to “challenge” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) “or find someone who can,” reports the  Middle East Eye . Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz is reportedly hoping to oust his 33-year-old nephew in the wake of an allegedly state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. MbS has virtual control over Saudi Arabia after a June 2017 shakeup in which King Salman removed Muhammad bin Nayef as heir apparent. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman The septuagenarian prince, an open critic of bin Salman (MBS), has travelled with security guarantees given by US and UK officials. “ He and others in the family have realised that MBS has become toxic ,” a Saudi source close to Prince Ahmad told Middle East Eye. “The prince wants to play a role to make these changes, which means either he himself will play a major role in any new arrangement or to help to choose an altern

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 develop

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 area in northe

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