ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Illustrative image German authorities uncovered and cracked down on a group of 200 elite soldiers, which had planned to carry out political assasinations,  Germany’s news magazine Focus reported citing own sources . According to the report, the suspects formed a covert neo-Nazi faction within the German military’s Special Force Commando (KSK). German radio stations Radio Bremen, NDR, ZDF and ARD claimed that KSK troops had allegedly displayed extreme right-wing behavior at a goodbye party that took place on April 27, 2017 at a shooting range near Stuttgart. Their faction’s membership reportedly grew when Chancellor Angela Merkel let a million refugees into the country in 2015. The further speculations claimed that the faction had been planning to assasinate Green Party leader Claudia Roth, foreign minister Heiko Mass and other left-wing German politicians as well as to kill immigrants to the country in an even called “Day X”. This plan was set to be employed when law and orde

The Houthis’ media wing released a 30-minute-long video showing clashes at supply lines of forces of the Saudi-UAE-led coalition south of the Yemeni port city of al-Hudaydah. According to pro-Houthi sources,  the Houthis and their local allies had killed 180 coalition-backed fighters and destroyed 21 military vehicles in western Yemen during the last two days . While these numbers look exaggerated, the released video allows to confirm that the coalition in-fact suffered significant casualties and lost some miltiary equipment.

At the start of the 2014 conflict, UAF sniper establishment was chiefly equipped with the Dragunov SVD rifles, adopted in 1963. Naturally, these weapons were insufficiently effective against distant targets, though were quite suitable for city fighting. Sniping was never a priority in Ukraine, the army looked upon it coolly, with the SBU spetsnaz and the 3 rd  and 8 th  Special Operations Regiments of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukrainian MOD being the main proponents of sniping. It was a sniper from the 3 rd  Regiment who claims the first recorded effective shot from a sniper rifle on May 25, 2014 near the Donetsk airport. For the sake of completeness, one should add these specialists also had a very small number of examples of Western sniper weapons bought before the coup. Moreover, Ukraine’s MVD had semi-automatic Fort-301 rifles built by the Vinnitsa-based Fort plant. This weapon uses the NATO 7,62х51mm round, and is a copy of the Israeli Galil Sniper rifle which in tur

Illustrative image: YPG members On November 9, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) released new info about YPG attacks on Turkey-led forces in the Syrian region of Afrin. According to the YPG claims, the group’s Vengeance Unit Martyr Dilsoz attacked position of Turkish-backed groups in the village of Mihemediye. 3 members of the Sham Legion and 2 other militants were reportedly killed as well as 6 others were wounded. Separately, the YPG’s Vengeance Unit Martyr Rusyar carried out an attack on the HQ of the Sultan Murad Division in the city center of Afrin. 3 members of the Sultan Murad Division were reportedly killed and 4 others were wounded. On November 3, the YPG released a detailed report on its operations against the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Turkish-backed militant grousp in Afrin in October. According to this report, the YPG carried out 19 “military operations” in the area killing 3 TAF servicemen and 39 members  of Turkish-backed groups. 10 militants were

Ex-longtime CNN talk show host Larry King dropped a bomb on his former network of 25 years, telling Russian state-owned  RT America  that “ CNN stopped doing news a long time ago .” King’s comments came  just one day before  CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta engaged in a  verbal altercation  with President Trump over a northbound Central American migrant caravan – batting a young White House aide’s arm away as he refused to relinquish the microphone. “You know, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person,” said President Trump. “You shouldn’t be working for CNN,” adding “The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is  horrible. ” Acosta’s White House credentials were pulled  later that evening . White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration.  We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a you