ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Remember when the War on Terror ended and the War on Populism began? That’s OK, no one else does. It happened in the Summer of 2016, also known as “ the Summer of Fear .” The War on Terror was going splendidly. There had been a series of “terrorist attacks,” in Orlando, Nice, Würzberg, Munich, Reutlingen, Ansbach, and Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, each of them perpetrated by suddenly “self-radicalized” “lone wolf terrorists” (or “ non-terrorist terrorists “) who had absolutely no connection to any type of organized terrorist groups prior to suddenly “self- radicalizing” themselves by consuming “terrorist content” on the Internet. It seemed we were entering a new and even more terrifying phase of the Global War on Terror, a phase in which anyone could be a “terrorist” and “terrorism” could mean almost anything. This broadening of the already virtually meaningless definition of “terrorism” was transpiring just in time for Obama to hand off the reins to Hillary Clinton, who everyone kn

Bulletin of the Centre for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring in the Syrian Arab Republic (January 14, 2019): Ceasefire observation As part of the implementation of the Memorandum on the establishment of de-escalation zones in the Syrian Arab Republic, signed by the Russian Federation, the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran on 4 May 2017, control groups continue monitoring ceasefire compliance. Over the last 24 hours, the Russian party of the Russia-Turkey Commission on violations of the Joint Agreement has registered 3 cases of firing in the provinces of Aleppo (1), Latakia (1), and Idlib (1). The Turkish side has registered 19 cases of ceasefire violations in the provinces of  Aleppo (2), Hama (3), Idlib (13) and Latakia (1).­ Humanitarian aid provided for the Syrian population Over the last 24 hours the Russian Centre for reconciliation of opposing sides and Refugee Migration Monitoring has held one humanitarian action i

Click to see the full-size image On January 10 th ,  the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) released  images showing a Manned and Unmanned Teaming Limited Operational Assessment (MUM-T LOA) at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC), Indiana, performed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. According to the release: “The MUM-T LOA aimed to effectively combine robotics, sensors, manned/unmanned vehicles, and dismounted Marines with the goal of achieving greater mission effectiveness through enhanced situational awareness, greater lethality, improved survivability, and logistics sustainment.” There were 25 total events, with the oldest photograph dating from March 11 th , 2018 and the most recent November 14 th . Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click

Click to see full-size image The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that their security forces had captured four foreign terrorists during a special operation in northeastern Syria. “The captured cell played a key role in planning and carrying out many terrorist attacks in al-Tabqah and al-Raqqa,” the US-backed group said in an official statement released by its press center on January 11. The terrorists were identified as: -Omro Ozon Oghlo, a Turkish citizen; -Muhammad Jawad Khan, a Russian citizen; -Osmat Atayef, a Russian citizen; -Abdul- Raquf Torany, an Afghan citizen. Three days ago,  the SDF announced that its units captured eight foreign fighters of ISIS  during the ongoing military operation against ISIS in the middle Euphrates River Valley. Prior to that,  five terrorists fell in the hands of the US-backed group  while they were trying to attack refugees in the same region. A recent report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) revealed that

A screenshot from www.alwatanonline.com At least five British soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by ISIS in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor,  according to a January 9 th  report by Syrian Arabic-language newspaper al-Watan. The attack targeted the al-Shaafah village in Abu Kamal district of the province and several more soldiers were injured and airlifted to the coalition hospital in Hasakah, in northeastern Syria, according to the report. As of the morning of January 10 th  there has been no confirmation on the side of the UK, but if true that would make it the second attack on British troops by ISIS within days. On January 6 th ,  two British Special Forces soldiers were injured  in an ISIS attack, also in Deir Ezzor. A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was also reportedly killed in the attack. A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “We do not comment on special forces.” Thus, if there is an actual remaining British Special Forces operati