Global SITREP A4-18: SYRIA - Part II

Updated 28 January 2018: The truth about prophetic fulfillment is as cold as it is brutal. Those who have looked closely Jesus' prophecy regarding the siege and sacking of Jerusalem and the historical accounts of it over the seven years of 67 to 73 AD by five Roman Legions truly understand the reality of the level of coldness and brutality that occurred. It is and will be no different in the modern era, even worse in fact. When the God-breathed prophesies Jeremiah 49:25-26 and Isaiah 17:12-13 were given spoken of the near future in Syria, saying...

"Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts."

"Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind."

we can more fully understand that these living words are not antiseptic and as clean or tidy as the Holy Word pages upon which we read them.

This past Thursday (25 JAN 18) at the UN Security Council Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon revealed classified data collected and corroborated by Israeli intelligence that was approved for the world to know by Israel's Security Cabinet. The formerly classified data revealed Ambassador Danon amounts to something, at best, only guessed at, and more probably never even considered by the global corporate media who are supposed to report truthfully on this war.

We now know that Iran is spending an estimated $35 Billion dollars per year to train, support and arm an 82,000-man military force in Syria. By the numbers, this force constitutes 60,000 males of military age who are almost certainly Syrian Alawites; 10,000 Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani Shi'a militiamen; 9,000 Hezbollah from Lebanon, and who are all led by a 3,000 member Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officers. 

Is there any doubt that the IDF will soon have to deal swiftly and effectively in the annihilation of this force as the prophetic words above tell us? Is there any doubt that weaponry of immense power will be required to achieve the objective? Again, Isaiah 17:3 informs us that not only will Damascus become a heap of ruins (which the city certainly is not at this moment in time) but so also will the remainder of Syria. 

Eschatology Today assesses that Ambassador Danon was authorized by the Israeli government to reveal this information in part for the world to understand the level of force Israel will be required to bring down upon these enemies in self defense in the face of Iranian aggression. These prophesies we have been given are completely literal, will come to pass, and as Jesus said, they must take place, but we are not to fear, for the end is not yet. 

Syria - Part III will follow in the days to come.

27 January 2018: Turkey has been warned in no uncertain terms by the US-led CJTF-OIR Coalition to re-think its declared intent to assault the Syrian city of Manbij. If the Turks fail to heed the warning then they'll find themselves being decimated F-22 Raptors and other Coalition aircraft as well as ground forces. CJTF-OIR spokesman (a/k/a the OIRSpox) Colonel Ryan Dillon told the Washington Free Beacon, "Our forces there (Manbij) are well prepared to defend themselves. We have air coverage over all our troops so we're always prepared to defend ourselves, whether it's from ISIS or any other threat." 

It has also come to light via DefenseOne that the 30,000 man "border security force" is not a phrase that originated with the US CENTCOM commander (GEN Joseph Votel). In a December interview with the Associated Press Gen. Votel described the training of local Kurdish and Arabs in northern Syria to defend against a "resurgence of ISIS" in their regions. The AP reporter incorrectly used the phrase "border security force" and Turkey seized upon that as a pretext to launch its invasion of the Aleppo Governorate. Clearly the Turkish operation had been planned over an extended period of time. So here we have a case where the media, the AP in particular, have blood on their hands in giving the Turks a pretext to invade Syria and which may eventually lead to combat between Turkey and NATO and the CJTF-OIR allies in Syria. Anyone taking the AP to task over this? All we hear are crickets.

25 January 2018: The potential for a direct military engagement between NATO allies US and Turkey west of the Euphrates River in the Manbij region of northern Syria was the subject of a warning President Trump gave to President Erdogan yesterday during a phone call between them. According to the White House readout of that conversation, Trump "urged Turkey to exercise caution and to avoid any action that might risk conflict between Turkish and American forces." 

The Eschatology Today assessment is that (as a starting point of negotiation) an agreement should be made between the NATO allies which is similar to that of Israel on its Golan border with Syria regarding Hezbollah/Iranian encroachment. Along the Turkish border west of the Euphrates River a minimum 5-mile wide security zone be established where no armed militias would be permitted to operate. This would include all armed militias, but especially the Turkey-supported FSA and the US-supported YPG militias. The zone and border crossings could be secured by joint NATO security forces, such as is the case of the UNDOF forces on the Golan.

Whether or not something like this is achieved remains to be seen. Erdogan may need a way to save face in the wake of his bellicose statements of late and such an agreement might facilitate this objective. What is also clear is that Turkey could not execute its offensive operations in the Aleppo Governorate without Russian forces in Syria standing down and permitting the execution of Operation Olive Branch. What is certain is that the Davos World Economic Forum will be the scene of intense diplomatic efforts in a final attempt to preclude a catastrophe in Syria. Obviously, those efforts are not likely to succeed according to the prophetic texts of Jeremiah and Isaiah.

24 January 2018: The Turks have actually run into fierce resistance from the Afrin Kurds YPG militia. (NOTE: Standing with the Kurds against the Turkish invasion are volunteers from the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and several other NATO countries and well as some Asian nations. They are standing with the Kurds because the Kurds stood with the US-led Coalition fighting Islamic State.) A couple of days into the operation and the Turks have barely advanced a little more than a few miles into Syrian territory. There's apparently more bark in Erdogan's rhetoric than real bite, at least thus far. Obviously both Arabs and Kurds still have exposed raw nerves due to the oppression they suffered at the hands of their former Ottoman Turk overlords of a century ago. Old wounds reopened.

The bigger update, however, centers on the conflict brewing between Russia and the U.S. over Syria's renewed use of chemical weapons against rebel forces. US SECSTATE Rex Tillerson placed "ultimate responsibility" for the renewed chemical warfare upon Russia, accusing the Russian government of "shielding" the Al-Assad regime from full exposure of its war crimes and crimes against humanity from 2013 to the present. Strong words. This is the kind of thing - in northwestern Syria no less - that could lead to the kind of catastrophe foretold by Jeremiah. The potential for such a catastrophe expands exponentially with each passing hour.

21 January 2018: Turkish artillery and jets bombing the Afrin district of Aleppo Governorate as part of their proclaimed "Operation Olive Branch" have been met by stiff resistance from the Kurds of the YPG militia. This morning the Kurds stuck back at the town of Reyhanli in Turkey's Hatay Province to the west and the town of Kilis to the north with rocket fire. With the Turkish bombardment killing Kurdish civilians, the Kurds decided to return fire in an eye-for-eye fashion upon Turkey itself. Turkish hatred of the Kurdish people is reminiscent of the Turkish hatred of the Armenian people and the resultant genocide of the early 20th Century. Is history repeating itself?

There is also a key distinction to be made in this part of Syria for the benefit of our readers in their understanding of the war. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) here is more correctly identified as the Turkish Free Syrian Army (TFSA), and is not to be confused with the Free Syrian Army operating in other battlefields of the Syrian Civil War. The TFSA was re-branded the Syrian National Army (SNA) by Turkey in May of 2017 during its Operation Euphrates Shield (OES), the purpose of which was to prevent the Kurds of northern Syria from establishing contiguous territory under their control along the length of the Turkish border. Members of the TFSA/SNA are primary Turkomen and Arabs and are without question a proxy force under Turkish government control. They fight against the SDF/YPG within the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR. This would appear to make the life expectancy of Turkish membership within NATO one of very limited duration should things go from bad to worse.

It must be noted that since the start of the Syrian Civil War, this region of Syria has not seen major warfare erupt until yesterday. The relative peace enjoyed by hundreds of thousand of civilian populations on both side of the border came to an abrupt end when Turkey's Islamist warlord Erdogan launched his grossly misnamed 'Operation Olive Branch' at 5 PM local time yesterday. The objective of this Turkish aggression is genocide of the indigenous Kurdish population and the destruction of the US-allied YPG. In sum, Turkey has unilaterally widened the war in Syria. 

The U.S. is "very concerned" with Turkey's military invasion and is pressing the Turks hard to limit the scope of Operation Olive Branch, recognizing that it unnecessarily and severely hampers the central goal in the war against the Islamic State. (U.S. State Department press release).

20 January 2018: Northwestern Syria slowly turned into quite the expected conflagration this week thanks to the Islamist warmonger of Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The U.S. practically begged Erdogan to stand down on his threats to the Kurds (YPG militia) in Afrin. 

The Syrians said any Turkish military incursions into the Aleppo Governorate (within which the 710 square mile Afrin is a district) would be considered acts of aggression, and promised to shoot down Turkish jets, assuming the Russians would allow a NATO country to conduct combat operations over their heads. The Russians had some de-escalation zone troops stationed in Afrin and over the past 48 hours began pulling them out into other places in Aleppo Governorate. 

Kurdish YPG forces from the east near Manbij are reportedly moving enmasse to support their kin in Afrin. It's all a real hot mess with columns of Turkish heavy armor massed just across the border and nearly 200,000 civilians and refugees from elsewhere in Syria caught in the crossfire. The Kurds say there are 1 million people in northern Syria along the Turkish border.

The Kurdish YPG are allied with the Syrian Democratic Forces (Kurds and Arabs of the SDF) who are a part of the U.S.-led CJTF OIR Coalition fighting the remaining forces of the Islamic State in Syria. These are the same militias that the U.S. is hoping to transform into a border security force of about three brigades strong for northern and eastern Syria. Oh, and did we report here recently that "It's on" in Syria? You better believe it's on. Almost a free-for-all gunfight is looming.

This morning Turkish jets began bombing Kurdish targets in the Afrin District, and Erdogan said the offensive would shortly expand in scope to the town of Manbij. U.S. troops supporting the YPG militia have been in in Manbij for about a year now. They were attacked by Turkish-backed rebel back in March of last year. Those Turkish supported rebels attempted to conquer Manbij but the U.S.-led defenders stopped them cold.

A full-scale Turkish Army offensive would a something of an entirely different nature. The weekend is still young. Eyes open. As a reminder, the Eschatology Today view is that anything going on in Syria today is directly related to the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:23-27 and ultimately to Isaiah 17.

Global SITREP A2-18: The Revolution in Persia (Iran)

Update 27 January 2018: The Hojjatieh Shi'a clerics running the Islamic Republic of Iran are under ever increasing pressure from virtually every direction on the compass - which is akin to the prophetic point made in Jeremiah 49:36. Let us take stock of these winds blowing against Iran.

While the protests in Iran appear to have been fully repressed by the regime,  don't think for a moment they are over. They continue simmering just below the surface because the iranian people know that Iran has been caught red-handed in gross human rights abuses during the uprising. They are biding their time now because help is coming from outside the country.

The United Nations is applying pressure in the form of a report which Iran cannot deny in the face of hard facts and military hardware. The UN report proves beyond question that Iran broke UN arms embargo by supplying ballistic missiles to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. This report will likely lead to an increase in sanctions against the regime. Additionally, virtually all countries are in agreement that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is a terrorist organization. Sanctions against the IRGC's commercial assets will also economically choke Iran.

In Israel, US Vice President Pence speaking in a special session the Israel Knesset made clear that the disaster of the Iran nuclear agreement will no longer be a can kicked down the road by the Trump Administration - certification of iranian compliance by the US President is at and end, as is the agreement itself. The US and EU will jointly decertify the agreement due to Iran's continuing ballistic missile development which is an undeniable facet of the agreement. VP Pence also certified that Iran will not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. This is a very strong hint in the direction of probable military action.

The Iranian mullah's regime is not known to make concessions against issues such as these, yet according to the US Navy the IRGC-crewed fast boats that routinely swarm ours and coalition ships in the gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz have suddenly and completely halted any aggressive actions like these have been in recent months and weeks. Shot were fired in these standoffs recently, and now the Ayatollah has blinked. 

But before he blinked, the Ayatollah also saw a determined US and Israeli program to stop and reverse Iranian expansion in Syria. He saw the very real potential for the military isolation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and a united front of Sunni Arabs in a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE blocking his expansion in Yemen. Indeed, the Saudi-led coalition has turned the tide against the Houthi's in Yemen and are advancing against all remaining enemy strongholds. Iranian military expansion has been checked and will soon see its fortunes reversed just as Jeremiah prophesied long ago.

IRGC/Qods Force General Qassem Soleimani

2 January 2018: The Iranian armed revolution gathers strength. The hated Basij, the regime's paid street thugs controlled by the IRGC, have been repeatedly attacked and their bases have come under assault by force of arms in cities all over the country. Additionally, Twelver clerics of the Iranian theocracy are also being targeted. 

This is true also for the man seen in the image above. He is one whose name has appeared on the pages of this blog with increasing frequency in the past couple of years: IRGC/QF General Qassem Soleimani. General Soleimani has long been held up by the Ayatollah's regime as one whose foreign aggression and terror are to be idolized. In stark contrast to this the people of Iran have taken every opportunity to tear down and burn in effigy any likeness of the man found in cities all across the Islamic Republic. He is not seen as anything close to a hero of the Islamic Republic, but as a very public personage representing the murderous clerics in Tehran and Qom as their foreign-based executioner of innocents. 

Beyond this, there are a growing number of reports, the very first originating with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida, which speak of a "green light" being given by the United States to Israel's clandestine forces for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. The Israeli's wanted to execute such a plan three years ago, but the Obama Administration betrayed that plan to the Iranians as part of the nuclear agreement. Soleimani's hands are covered with the blood of Iraqi, Kurdish, Lebanese and Syrian civilians, but it was IRGC/QF forces under his command which have the blood and the maiming of hundreds of American soldiers who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom with Iranian-made EFPs. 

Soleimani's most egregious assault occurred on 20 January 2007 at a Karbala, Iraq security compound. Soleimani's IRGC/QF disguised as US soldiers, brazenly abducted and then murdered in cold blood five American soldiers. The modus operandi of this attack was near identical to the abduction of IDF soldiers in northern Israel which precipitated the Hezbollah War of 2006. A captured Shi'a militant and Lebanese Hezbollah operative both subsequently confirmed in mid-2007 that the IRGC/QF planned and executed operation, and U.S. intelligence also learned that Iran's senior leadership - all the way up to Ayatollah Khamenei - was aware and approved of the IRGC/QF activities in Iraq. The Iranian Twelver regime has a terrible debt that has come due.

Anti-Regime Armed Revolt in Iran

1 January 2018: There's no other way to describe what is occurring in Iran other than to call it a revolution in the making; a revolution that is now 5-days old. One can get a good sense of what has occurred thus far and going forward by visiting the NCRI website. 

The US and Israel pact to destabilize and the regime and thwart its nuclear and missile delivery systems was agreed upon on December 12, 2017. The first protests began two weeks later, on December 28, 2017. It would seem that the Iranian people were looking for a sign from the West that unlike during the 2009 protests they would not be abandoned by the West this time. The US-Israel accord has apparently assured them that that is the case this time, and not in any manner to interfere with the Iranian people's revolution, but to support them as required.

If you listen to the son of the late Shah of Iran, the now 56-year old Prince Reza Pahlavi who is exiled in Dubai, UAE, many of the youth inside and outside of Iran today detest the Shi'a Twelver Hojjatieh regime. Whereas previously anyone in Iran speaking against the Supreme Leader would face the death penalty, this time shouts of "Death to Khamenei" and "Death to the Regime" are occurring all over the country. 

And according to Reza Pahlavi today's youth in Iran look to the past, and possess a very high regard for historical figures of Iran's past. Most prominent among them is King Cyrus the Great. Demonstrations in Iran at the tomb of Cyrus the Great make such claims resonate with their veracity. Iran's youth do not long for a new king, but for beneficent national government that respects the rights of the people and a representative parliamentary democracy to guarantee those rights.

Readers of Eschatology Today are well aware of the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy which specifically concerns Iran. It occurs to me we should be equally aware of the prophecies of Isaiah that were given him a century and a half before Cyrus the Great was born. Isaiah 41:2; 41:25; 44:28 and, most importantly, Isaiah 45:1-4 where God calls the king by name. And then there's the link between Cyrus the Great and Daniel in Daniel 10 and his vision, and the interpretation of which is continued in Daniel 11 continuing to our present day and into the future of the 70th Week. A well-rounded Biblical perspective indeed.

Often the question has appeared of why Iran is not directly mentioned in the prophecies concerning Syria, Lebanon and Psalm 83/Isaiah 11 or Ezekiel 28. Could it be that Iran is omitted from mention because it has no role due to an ongoing preoccupation with revolution on its own soil? We'll soon find out because for this revolution in Iran to occur at this point in history is not accidental occurrence; God is in complete and total control. His will being done.

🔺BREAKING NEWS: 22 January 2018: Speaking at a special session of the Knesset U.S. VP Mike Pence tweeted from Israel shortly thereafter that the new US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel will be opened before the end of  "next year" (2019). 

Global SITREP A3-18: SYRIA

A convoy of U.S. Army Stryker M1126 combat vehicles on-the-move in northern Syria

Update 18 January 2018: Speaking at Stanford University yesterday, U.S. SECSTATE Rex Tillerson confirmed what is stated below - U.S. troops are staying put in Syria, primarily as a hedge against Iranian military expansion within Syria. He also made clear that the U.S. is not willing to give up to the Al-Assad regime the territory that the CJTF-OIR Coalition forces have under their military control in northern and eastern Syria. SECSTATE Tillerson made clear that this policy is guarding against the error made by the Obama Administration through unilateral U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2010-2011. 

Is it now a fact that U.S. forces have secured all of Syria east of the Euphrates River. The prophetic implications for what happens in Syria to the west of the Euphrates River are blatantly obvious to the astute student of Bible prophecy, especially with respect to Israel (all the land to the Euphrates).

Anyone can plainly see this places the U.S. in theater conflict with the interests of the Al-Assad regime, militarily supported by Russia, Iran/Hezbollah and other pro-regime militias, as well as Turkey which stands opposed to Kurdish autonomy. The geographical map of what was, is and will be Syria is being redrawn by this new American anti-Assad policy. American defense of Israel against Iran is also a cold, hard, crystal clear fact.

Speaking of Turkey, a recent news item revealed that Turkey and Sudan have an agreement to turn over a small Sudanese island on their Red Sea coast to Turkey for re-development as a gateway into the Arabian peninsula. This island's redeveloped utility will be more fully realized as a probable invasion staging ground into southern Israel for the Ezekiel 38/39 prophetic fulfillment.

12 January 2018: It's on! To dispense with all manner of diplomatic speak, it's on in Syria. The US, Israel and allies versus Iran, Russia, Syria and, perhaps for the moment, Turkey standing against the two in accord with its own interests in Syria. 

A report on The Hill published yesterday afternoon confirms reports appearing in several foreign media, the gist of which is that the US has reversed its stance from an agreed upon strategic withdrawal of US forces from Syria (following the eradication of Islamic State forces) in the face of a blatant continuation of Iranian military aggression in the country. The strategic reversal applies to not only Iranian moves in Syria, but also its overt control of Iraq. We're not wiping out Islamic State just so that Iran can walk in and take over all the territory from its border with Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. Not gonna happen. Period.

Earlier this week, both the US and Israel detected the Iranian transfer of "game changing" military hardware into the Syrian theater of operation. Such hardware is utterly unnecessary with Islamic State having been nearly eradicated. Such hardware was easily identifiable as destined for use against Israel. Accordingly, the US promptly green-lighted the Israeli annihilation of every ounce of that military equipment. Israel completed that specific mission on Tuesday of this past week. Message sent. Israel used both strike aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles in three distinct waves following as many battle damage assessments to ensure the total annihilation of the Iranian equipment.

Now that "it's on" the watch for military developments in Syria will have to be 24/7. The next update will be in the form of a SYRIA Part II SITREP.


9 January 2018: It appears the attack discussed below was more high-tech than anyone, including Russia, suspected. It appears now that the 82mm mortars (Weight = 7 lb. 2 oz. or 3.23kg) were not fired from a 2B9M Vasilek mortar-gun, but were transported undetected by a flight of semi-autonomous combat drones programmed to fly to specific GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates. The correct nomenclature for combat drones such as these pending a more precise identification is UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle).

Intact and lightly damaged "bombs" recovered from enemy UCAVs at Hmeimim Air Base

Example of a captured Islamic State UCAV

On Friday, 6 January 2018 a swarm of 13 UCAVs flew into the area of Russia's Hmeimim Air Base and Tartus Naval Base on the Syrian Mediterranean Sea coast from somewhere in opposition-controlled territory in northwestern Syria. According to multiple reports Russian counter-UCAV systems overpowered and took effective control of six drones while Russian Pantsir-S1 (30mm auto-cannon) close range anti-air defenses shot down the other seven drones. 



Islamic State forces have demonstrated the technological capability for UCAV utilization on Syrian battlefields. In fact the specific type of UCAVs used in these attacks are known by US military intelligence to have been used by Islamic State forces These attacks have occurred in sharp contrast to Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of victory over anti-Assad forces at Hmeimim Air Base on 11 December 2017.

Eschatology Today data-mining of information has determined that these UCAVs are commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS). COTS UCAVs have been utilized by all sides in the Syrian-Iraqi conflict. Islamic State, Hezbollah, Ahrar al-Sham and the governments of Iraq, Syria and Iran have all deployed UCAVs. The UCAV bombs seen in the image above do bear a striking resemblance to those used by Islamic State UCAV strikes conducted in March 2017 in Raqqa and Aleppo. 

Never before has Islamic State launched an attack against an airfield or aircraft as has occurred on 31 December 2017 and 6 January 2018. Russian aircraft have no armor and sit out in the open, so this makes them the most high-value targets there are in Syria, aside from a convoy of unarmored Syrian regime or Russian vehicles. Thus far explosive warheads are the weapon of choice, but it may be a matter of time before chemical, biological or radiological warheads make an appearance on the Syrian battlefield.

Damaged Russian Su-24 'Fencer' at Hmeimim Air Base

6 January 2018: There is no question that a mortar attack occurred on 31 December 2017 against the Russian Hmeimim Air Base in Syria. The image above confirms that damage was done to at least one Su-24 (NATO Name 'Fencer'). The image below confirms that the Su-24 with tail number 29 was recently parked, as is the norm, closely together in a neat row of other Fencers along the Hmeimim Air Base tarmac, with the munitions they carry also stored close by. 

Russian Mi-24 'Hind'

Incidentally, a Russian Mi-24 'Hind" flying tank chopper was apparently downed by hostile fire (Russia says no hostile fire was involved) on the same day, just 9 miles, and in the vicinity of Ain Ash Sharqiyeh (a mountainous region) in the direction of Hama from the Hmeimim Air Base. Both Russian aviators were killed. Not many media have noted what a bad day 31 December 2017 was for Russian military aviation in Syria on that day. Odd. Then again, for what its worth, the media are utterly obsessed with anything and everything in the Trumposphere, real or imagined.

Su-24 'Fencer' number 24 parked at Hmeimim Air Base

However, and all of the foregoing aside, what is now being questioned is not how many Russian combat aircraft sustained damage in the attack on Hmeimim, or how many Russian servicemen will killed during the attack (Russia's MoD admits 2 were killed; 8 wounded) but who was responsible for the attack. Normally the 'radical jihadists' claim their victories and achievements in the Syrian war, but not so this time. They've been oddly silent in making any claim, a claim Eschatology Today has patiently waited on over the past week. As of today, no one but those who fired their weapons upon Hmeimim knows for sure.

This attack on Hmeimim Air Base is now being questioned by Russia upon their Syrian hosts. Initially and publicly, Russia blamed the attack on ISIS militants armed and trained by the U.S. This was done without any proof put forward on the size or type of shells which impacted Hmeimim. No photos of ordnance fragments. Nothing. What is known is that the area the Mi-24 overflew is supposed to be 'friendly' territory, controlled by the regime or its Iranian militia allies. 

Now comes leaked word that a 1970s-era Russian (Warsaw Pact) weapon known as the 2B9M Vasilek gun/mortar was the weapon system used in the attack. The Vasilek, (i.e. Cornflower), is a vehicle-towed, automatic burst firing four-round clips, optically-sighted 82mm mortar. 

What this techno jargon means is that Hmeimim was attacked with a line-of-sight heavy weapon system that is in the inventory of Syrian Arab Army as well as having been taken as war booty by the Ansar al-Sham jihadist opposition forces. What this techno jargon also means is that the attacker was - at the very most - just 2.5 miles from Hmeimim Air Base. Ansar al-Sham mobile infantry using this weapon system just 2.5 miles from Russia's air bridge foothold in Syria? No wonder Moscow thinks the Syrian Arab Army was the attacker. It does not seem likely that Ansar al-Sham jihadists are driving around the Alawite stronghold of coastal Syria dressed as Syrian Arab Army soldiers with this weapon in tow. One thing is also for sure, "friendly fire" is never friendly.

What this should mean to Eschatology Today readers is that this lightly-reported attack, and the same day Mi-24 flying tank chopper shoot-down, have both occurred within the past week in the northwestern part of Syria where the literal interpretation of Jeremiah 49:23 has always been highlighted here as the location, the geographic point of origin, of a prophetic event which will turn the ongoing war in Syria upon its inglorious head. Such an event will be the driving impetus for the remainder of Jeremiah 49:24-27 and Isaiah 17 to come to their fulfillment. Always watching for news most folks never see, or would not understand fully if they did.

Syria will be a hotter place in 2018.

Global SITREP A4-18: Developing the Technology of the 70th Week

10 January 2018: Last October posted HERE was a look at the near future of the 70th Week, as prophesied by God in Revelation 13:14, when AI (Artificial Intelligence) meets up with non-human intelligence. The AI has been developed to its current level by human intelligence. 

One example is seen in the 2-minute video embedded above introducing "Spot" the 'dog.' See spot run. Let us hope you never see "Spot" fully weaponized and on the hunt for those who have not taken the mark of the beast, and do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. These creations, and others not seen here, but well known in aviation circles, have the potential to bring the incredible text of Revelation 9 into something we can more easily understand.



If you've got a few minutes to expand your level of knowledge on AI in its current state and what it is capable of, the visit Boston Dynamics and explore the website. Check out Handle, SpotMini, and Atlas.

Global SITREP A1-18: A Quick Perspective Analysis on What to Expect

The Lord Jesus Christ delivering the Olivet Discourse

1 January 2018: The Eschatology Today blog began on 18 January 2009. Over the course of the initial four years (2009-2012) the average number of Eschatology Today posts was 34. Beginning in 2013 (Global SITREPs commenced in March of 2013) and continuing through  the next four years (through 2016) the number of posts virtually doubled for 2013, 2015, and 2016. 2014 was quite the anomaly with a total of 99 posts, bringing that four year average to 75. This brings us to the present and the just completed 2017 in which there were a total of 72 posts, more than double the number of posts in 2009. 

People who do analysis use figures like these to illustrate trends. The increasing frequency of yearly SITREPs is a kin to a siren calling firemen to the firehouse; the number of prophetic fires having doubled. The urgency of reporting has increased two-fold. In 2009-2012 Eschatology Today looked at future prophetic events and how they might be expected to unfold. IN 2017 WE SPENT A LOT OF TIME WATCHING THEM UNFOLD. We spent much of the year anticipating the fulfillment of the Great Sign of Revelation 12:1-2. It occurred exactly as detailed in that Scripture.

And some will still say that tomorrow never comes. I've got news for those folks, tomorrow is here - today. This should be pretty apparent to the 1.6 million of you viewing the 505 Eschatology Today posts during the past 9 years on an average of 14,900 times per month. Hindsight is 20/20; it provides the proper perspective.

So, 2018 begins Eschatology Today's 10th year, and many are wondering what to expect. As always, expect what our Lord Jesus Christ told us to expect. Expect the unexpected! 

"Be ready because in the hour you do not expect the Son of Man comes." (paraphrased Matthew 24:44) 

In ancient times, and in the words of the Lord's prophets, time and date were given in a certain format. Most often the format was akin to how Daniel's 9th chapter begins. The first two verses read (and please read these prophetic words carefully, a couple of times if necessary):

"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldean's in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."

Could I now write:

"In the first year of Trump, who was made leader over the realm of the Americans and of the free world, on the twenty-third day of the eighth month, I understood by the words specified by God, who had given them to Christ Jesus and who gave them to His servant John on Patmos, that the Great Sign came to pass."

Yes, and I just did write them. But they're not prophetic words, they are words of what is now historical fact. And all one has to do is look at what has occurred as detailed in the dozen or so posts, from Global SITREP D1-17 through E3-17 to see what has occurred of prophetic importance in the three months since the Great Sign. Jerusalem, has become the the focus of last days prophetic fulfillment we have long known it would become. Not to be lost on anyone reading here - this has occurred in the 70th year of Israel's modern, end-times existence, which is also the 10th sequential HaShemittah since Israel was re-born in the covenant land. 

And make no mistake, this is not about politics or an issue of secular import, this is about the literal fulfillment of the Lord's inerrant word. And just as with the Great Sign it is prophecy occurring in fulfillment before all of our senses, along with everything relevant to the imminent literal fulfillment of the several prophecies involving Iran (Persia, Elam), Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and, of course, Israel. And just about 24 hours ago the process of Israel taking full, sovereign possession of Judea and Samaria very probably began in earnest.

"Be ready because in the hour you do not expect the Son of man comes."