Global SITREP B10-18: Dara'a, Quneitra and the Israeli Golan

Liwa Zulfikar - Iraqi Shi'a militia under IRGC command in Syria

UPDATE  11 July 2018: A final warning given to Tehran via Moscow.

10 July 2018: Pay attention to the now bold red text in the 4 July update below. Any Syrian, Hezbollah or IRGC-led military forces crossing the eastern Line Bravo into the DMZ will trigger the IDF into the large-scale operation described. Israel again yesterday directly warned against such movement. Nevertheless, the enemy has begun firing into the Quneitra area. The rest will soon be prophetic fulfillment in real-time.

4 July 2018: Eschatology Today is fairly well convinced that the Syrian-Hezbollah-IRGC Dara'a offensive on Dara'a (ancient Edrei) with Russian air support was suddenly ordered into a "quick halt" by Russian generals at Khmeimim Air Base. That order came from further up the chain of command in Moscow because Russian leadership learned that an Israel counter-offensive was with hours of being launched into Syria. Indeed, at about that same time, and as if to press home the point, the Dara'a joint-Syrian-Iranian weapons and ammo depot was attacked and largely destroyed.

Despite the military halt in Dara'a, Russia doubled down with Israel on the critical Iranian/Hezbollah issue. This morning Russian FM Sergei Lavrov declared that a total Iranian withdrawal from Syria was "completely unrealistic." Lavrov issued his double-down knowing full well that Israel had recently attacked and drove back Iranian militia attempting to cross into Syria from Iraq. What part of that message did Mr. Lavrov fail to comprehend? 

Clearly, for Israel, the Russians should save their breath as the issue of Iranian military forces remaining in Syria is non-negotiable. How they leave is the only option on the table: either willingly or by being destroyed in-place. For its part, Iran will ignore the Israeli red line, as it sees continuing the offensive through Dara'a and into Jordan itself as a means to outflank the IDF on the Golan. The rest is largely predictable.

With respect to the Golan, and Quneitra, the above map provides a key visual aid. The thin purpule-colored strip of land is the U.N. Disengagement Of Forces (UNDOF) zone that has existed since it was negotiated in 1973. Notice Quneitra (indicated by the red-colored oval) lies on the western side of this no-mans land. It is nigh impossible for Syrian, Hezbollah and IRGC-QF militias to enter any part of the UNDOF zone, or even appear to be about to enter it, without triggering an IDF offensive operation to push the enemy forces back another 30 to 35km away from the Israeli border. A 30-35km push would mean the entire right-hand side of this image becoming an Israeli military conquest within a couple days time.


2 July 2018: When these SITREPs are posted they always contain enough information, enough keywords, for the true Christian reader to eagerly seek out more information from the Word of God. This has been true from day one of Eschatology Today and its secondary objective of getting the reader to seek out the truth directly for themselves. Sad to report, this is not happening with this SITREP; if it were the comments section would have been flooded by this morning with questions or requests for clarifications regarding prophetic content within the first paragraphs of SITREP B10-18, if not the title itself.

Eschatology Today will now illustrate because this is a "teaching moment." We find in the Book of Numbers 21:33-35 that during Israel's arrival in the Promised Land, that Israel turned up (went north) to Bashan and then fought and won the Battle of Edrei. With whose help did Israel prevail in those ancient battles? Is the IDF not similarly empowered by THWH God today? 

Here's an eye-opener: Edrei is the modern city of Dara'a. We must understand Bashan is all of the land of this part of southern Syria, from the border of Gilead in the south to Mount Hermon on the north, and from the Jordan River valley east to the city of Salkhad (Salchah). And Israel possessed this land. See the map below with a thin black outline across southern Syria. 

Those who have read Eschatology Today all these many years are very well aware of the frequent mention of Joshua 13 as a prophetic chapter for this modern era. Joshua 13 goes hand-in-hand with Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 and the other pre-70th Week war prophecies. Once again, the prophetic importance of Joshua 13 cannot be understated, yet from far too many prophecy teachers little to nothing is ever mentioned. Now read Joshua 13:29-31 to know what lies in the near future for these same places where battles rage at the moment. Know that today Israel's mighty army stands at the ready on the Golan Heights against the approaching armies of Syria, Lebanese Hezbollah and their Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force overlords. Once again the Word of God presented the past as the prologue for future events. Very near future events.

All the land of Bashan, the kingdom of King Og.

Eschatology Today - Out front where we belong.

29 June 2018: Israel Defense Forces crossed overland into Syria last night on a humanitarian mission to provide many tons of tents, food, water, medicine and clothing to Syrian civilian war refugees pushed up against the Israeli Golan and Jordanian borders. Several tractor trailers loaded with the supplies and forklifts where escorted by heavily-armed IDF troopers through no-mans-land security fences where the humanitarian relief was transferred to waiting Syrian civilian trucks which delivered it all directly to the make-shift refugee camp nearest to the Israeli border. 

There are an estimated total of 125,000 civilian refugees pressed into this no-mans-land in the tri-border region, and whose ranks are swelling at a high rate due to indiscriminate and unrelenting Syrian and Russian Air Force bombings in and around Dera'a. The three best hospitals in Dera'a were bombed into forced closeure. War crimes and crimes against humanity are normal fare here as in other parts of Syria. Direct Israeli military intervention is only a matter of time now.

28 June 2018: This SITREP will focus on the newest and most dangerous flashpoint in the Syrian war: Dara'a, Quneitra and the Israeli Golan. Considerable fresh OSINT is being assessed along with material that has aged for at least five years regarding Iraqi Shi'a militias operating in Syria for iranian strategic interests. These militia, under IRGC-QF command, have added Syrian Shi'a militia to their ranks. Thus Syrian militia is also under the command of IRGC-QF General Qassem Soleimani and the iranian Ayatollah. The in-progress OSINT assessment is pointing to these militia joining the battle underway in southern Syria within the U.S., Israel and Jordan deconfliction zone.

The prophetic importance, besides the obvious regarding Syria, can also be attached directly to Psalm 83:8.  

Assyria also has joined with them;

They have helped the children of Lot.

Eschatology Today has for many years held the interpretation of this verse to point directly at troops from Iraq. These iraqi Shi'a militia have recently completed campaigns in that part of Iraq and Syria where the ancient Assyrians once had uncontested rule. There are now on Israel's northern doorstep.

Global SITREP C7-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited, Part VIII

The military Situation in Syria, 7 July 2017. These are current and true front lines of the Trump-Putin agreement. Click on the map for greater detail. Less than 24 hours later Syrian and Hezbollah forces launched a major assault upon rebel-held As-Suweida.

The former line beyond which enemy forces of Iran and Hezbollah were not to advance southwards.

Update 14 July 2017:  Now it gets a whole lot more interesting, prophetically speaking! Eschatology Today has learned that Russia wants its CSTO allies, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in particular, to deploy their military forces into Syria in support of Russian military objectives.

As most of you are aware from previous Eschatology Today reports, the view here is that the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39 reflects modern-day geo-political realities. This interpretation holds that the Central Asian nations (former republics of the Soviet Union) constitute the bulk of the nations identified in Ezekiel's prophecy which also participate in the near future doomed-to-failure attempt to invade and conquer Israel for the spoils of war.

Here these nations are now with Russia putting the prophetic hooks in their jaws in drawing them into a middle eastern war which itself is like a derailed locomotive disaster about to happen at the next bend in the tracks. Looking up with eyes wide open, brother sand sisters!

11 July 2017: The US-Russian agreement for a partial ceasefire in southwestern Syria along the Israeli-Jordanian borders went into effect two and one-half hours ago. (See new 7JUL17 map at top) This is not a formalized, written and signed document for a cessation of hostilities, but a verbal agreement made between the US and Russian leadership during their sidebar meeting at the G20 conference in Hamburg, Germany. It is the most recent ceasefire in a long series of failed ceasefires brokered by the US and Russia in Syria. 

The closest thing to any detail of what is in the agreement is that all opposing forces must maintain their current positions; they are essentially to be frozen in place. Reportedly, according to the Russian side, the cessation is to be policed by Russian MPs. There are no US forces on the ground in southwestern Syria east of Al-Tanf or Raqqa. In Syrian government media there has been no mention of the cessation of hostilities.

Israel, Jordan and the US have long been monitoring southern Syria with the most advanced, high-tech surveillance systems on any international border in the world. Since the surrveillance system made by Raytheon went active there has never been a succesdful infiltration of Jordanian territory. The system monitors troop movement deep inside Syrian territory. Any infiltration attempt receives a warning. If the warning is ignored the infiltrators are summarily exterminated.

7 July 2017: The unexpected has happened. The expected 30-minute meeting of presidents Trump and Putin at the G20 became an unexpected meeting of two and a quarter hours. The unexpected happened again when the announcement of a negotiated ceasefire in Syria to commence Sunday was made public by SECSTATE Tillerson right after the US and Russian presidential meeting concluded. 

Details on what is within the ceasefire agreement should be forthcoming. However, initial reporting seems to confirm that Iranian militias, including Hezbollah, must withdraw at least 30 miles from the Israeli and Jordanian borders as related in the 3 July update below. Also, combat operations against IS will continue. How Iran and Turkey will respond to this agreement is unknown, but Iran is likely going to be furious at being jilted by their Russian ally.

And there's the rub. No ceasefire of Russian involvement in Syria has ever been worth the paper it wasn't written on. This fact is also primarily superceded by what Isaiah and Jeremiah wrote more than two and one half millennia ago. How the truce collapses is not as important as how Bible prophecy guarantees that it will fail.

VBIED terror attack in Damascus on 2 July 2017. Image by AFP from Times of Israel. This image is proof that Damascus is not yet destroyed as some prophecy teachers are prematurely teaching.

3 July 2017: Part VIII of this SITREP series on the war in Syria begins by focusing on a rather critical circumstance. This circumstance is present, as seen in the map above, from Israel's Golan Heights adjoining Lebanon, south to Quneitra and on down to and along all of the 235-mile long Syrian-Jordanian border. Under a joint US-Jordan-Russia agreement no military forces other than Syrian government's own forces are permitted to be any nearer than 30 miles of the border as indicated by the red line. This agreement exists despite the fact that the Syrian armed forces are under the de facto control of IRGC-Qods Force commander, Brig. Gen Qassem Soleimani, and therefore, Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei. Also in accordance with this agreement only token Syrian government forces would be present at border crossings. This 'closed' foreign military region clearly includes the city of Dara'a.

The truly critical and problematic circumstance detail is that the IRGC-led Hezbollah and Iranian proxy militias are present within this established foreign military no-go zone. They have made no effort to withdraw, and actually have continues their advance. Keeping these Iranian-led forces away from the Israeli and Jordanian borders was the key objective of the tri-party agreement in order to forestall an escalation of the warfighting to include Israel and Jordan in defense of their borders from Iranian military encroachment. 

As of this point in time, particularly in the pro-regime offensive against rebels in and around Dara'a (ostensibly under the control of the Multinational Operations Center (MOC) in Amman) and just outside of Quneitra, the agreement has become an objective failure posing a clear and present danger for unpredictable consequences. These unpredictable consequences, which we have been expecting per Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27, could quickly become tomorrow's headlines. 

Global SITREP C5-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part VII

Marjan Oil Field rig 

30 June 2017: Last entry for Part VII. Warfare for control of Quneitra resulted again in the Syrian Army deliberately sending mortar rounds into Israel. No one can be that far off in getting their mortar fire on-target. The IAF response was to immediately obliterate the Syrian mortar position.

Also, within the past 24-hours Russian propaganda media has reported that rebel forces in Daraa plan to use chemical weapons in a manner so as to blame it on the Al-Assad regime and in so doing cause retaliatory US/French air strikes on the regime. This report is an I&W that the Al-Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, is likely behind any such event should it actually occur in the stalemated Daraa warzone.

28 June 2017: It turns out that we caught the Syrians red-handed making Sarin at one of the Al -Sha'irat Air Base shelters not destroyed in the Tomahawk attack of two months ago. It looks as if the mixed of precursor chemicals has stopped and Syria has, for the moment at least, backed down. 

Last night, 27 June, the White House issued a warning to Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime which is identical to the expectation published here (highlighted below) one week ago. The Associated Press published and then updated the White House warning early this morning. 

The warning is based on received, actionable and highly critical intelligence that al-Assad's military was detected preparing precursor chemicals "for a possible sarin gas attack in either the east (or) south of the country." So highly critical, urgent and actionable was the received intelligence that the normal American inter-governmental channels for issuing a direct warning to the Syrian government were bypassed. The warning was direct in stating that both Bashar al-Assad and his military forces would pay a "heavy price" if the chemical attack were to occur.

There is nowhere more south in Syria than the under siege city of Dara'a, and the east of the country is hotly contested by the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR forces against approaching Iranian/Hezbollah and Syrian columns as reported here in the previous parts of this SITREP.


26 June 2017: All eyes on the Golan Heights. A major flare-up could occur here at any moment's notice. Since Saturday the IAF has destroyed a Syrian heavy machine gun bunker and two Syrian Main Battle Tanks, both costing Syrian soldiers their lives.  

20 June 2017: Two noteworthy items. First, Saudi coastal security forces caught a team of IRGC-QF terrorists red-handed in the midst of an operation to blow up several Marjan Oil Field rigs. The Saudi's apprehended one IRGC terrorist team in their explosives-laden watercraft while two other teams managed to escape back into Iranian waters. Such an attack, even though it was thwarted, is an act of war, and serves to illustrate the nearness of Jeremiah 49:34-39 to its literal fulfillment.

Second, as noted earlier in comments, Russia is seriously outgunned by the US in the ongoing showdown in Syria. Also noted in the previous SITREP was the recent forward deployment into Syria of just two U.S. HIMARS rocket artillery system vehicles. Russian squawking about this deployment of two HIMARS 6x6 vehicles illustrates how sensitive they are to their mere presence.

However, two HIMARS vehicles do not constitute an overwhelming offensive juggernaut. So why the Russian angst? Note Russia's recent ultimatum to strike U.S. air or ground assets which located west of the Euphrates River. This is precisely where the HIMARS have been deployed. So, would Russia actually launch strikes against the HIMARS to show their resolve to counter the U.S. build up and make good on their threat? If this is Putin and his generals plan they had better reconsider and recalculate their risk assessment.

For the sake of argument, let's say Russia takes them out. In the U.S. counter-strike we would in a matter of minutes, certainly within an hour's time, take out all of their expensive big boy toys toys at Hmeimim Air Base. The embarked airwing of the USS G.H.W. Bush is a mere 5 minutes away from reaching out and touching those Russian toys, even while in port Haifa, and in a manner that would leave none of them operational. Without their vaunted S300 and S400 air defense systems and an operable runway at Hmeimim Air Base the Russian mission in Syria would effectively be eliminated. Mission incomplete, mission fail. The point is that Russia is severely outgunned in Syria.

Putin feeling froggy? Think he might jump? Not if he's as smart as he thinks he is. President Trump and his senior Pentagon military planners are calling Putin's bluff. Nevertheless, miscalculations do happen and Bible prophecy indicates there may well be a near-term miscalculation in Syria.

F/A-18 Super Hornets

The Eschatology Today predicted event written about in Part V of this series has now occurred and the also predicted new phase of the war in Syria is now a fact. It took almost exactly 30 days for the prediction within the 15 May update of that SITREP to occur in the real-world:

15 May 2017: The two nuclear-armed (US and Russia) opposing armed force coalitions in Syria now appear to be engaged in operations designed to seize and hold territory. This is conventional warfare as we have known it for millennia. The real danger here is the allies with each coalition could engage each other in combat, either deliberately or by accident and particularly in southern and western Syria. In the skies overhead a free-for-all dogfight could also occur between the two sides combat aircraft. And then there's the continuing Iranian-Hezbollah drive to seize the Syrian side of the Golan. This is all stage-setting for the major conflagration this series on the Syrian Situation has been highlighting according to Bible prophecy (Isaiah 17; Jeremiah 49:23-27)

If one were to continue to read the paragraph following the above from that same update and then look at the situation that is now developing just to the north of the "cities of Aroer" of northwestern Jordan, that is, around Dara'a, Syria, and as reinforced in the recent 18 June update in Part VI of this series, one might be able to see how these events are eminently predictable through the literal interpretation of the plain text wording of Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophetic texts:

I would speculate (actually, I expect) that the Dara'a campaign appears to be falling into an Aleppo-like grind where the Syrian regime's offensive makes no headway resulting in the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime in an attempt to break the stalemate. We all should understand what will result if this does occur as Dara'a lies just 9 miles from the Jordanian border.

So, with this as the lead-in to Part VII of this series, we can hopefully have a better understanding of how these prophecies will come to their literal fulfillment. What is Bible prophecy if not God telling us well in advance what will happen in the future due to the decisions made by the opposing sides in these last days "wars and rumors of wars." 

The critical thing is, these are no longer a hazy or distant future fulfillment of prophetic texts, but fulfillment that we can see occurring now, coming with as little advance notice as a Biblical month of 30 days. We're talking in this series on Syria about literal prophetic fulfillment before it happens, not as occurs from far too many preachers pulpits where the discussion is after the fact. This is utilizing the fulfillment of Bible prophecy as testimony to the inerrant nature of the LORD God's prophetic word. If this is not a here and now witnessing tool, then none exist. 

Global SITREP C4-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part VI

Iranian Routes to the Mediterranean Sea. Image: The New Yorker 09JUN17

Update 18 June 2017: It seems disinformation has clouded the tactical picture in southern Syria. The 13 June update last week (directly below) regarding the conquest of Dara'a by Syrian and Hezbollah forces was premature and overly optimistic. What had been thought to be reliable OSINT turns out to have been pro-regime news reported as fact by Western media sources.

In fact, Dara'a has not been conquered despite the Syrian Army and Hezbollah's best efforts to take the city behind a significant weeks-long bombardment which included the use of napalm barrel bombs. For all intents and purposes the city of Dara'a has been blasted into rubble, large structures appear to be mere shells of their former selves. 

Dara'a on 07JUN17. Image MEMO/Anadolu Agency)

I would speculate (actually, I expect) that the Dara'a campaign appears to be falling into an Aleppo-like grind where the the Syrian regime's offensive makes no headway resulting in the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime in an attempt to break the stalemate. We all should understand what will result if this does occur as Dara'a lies just 9 miles from the Jordanian border.

Further west, at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing, US-led CJTF-OIR forces have pushed forward approximately 45 miles northeast to the desert village of al-Zakf to establish a second base camp. Some patrols have reportedly been operating up to 60 miles north of the Jordanian-Iraqi-Syrian border triangle. On the Iraqi side of the border the Al-Walid crossing was fully secured this past week from Islamic State units by U.S. and Iraqi Army forces, permitting the deeper penetration into Islamic State, and blunting the Syria-Hezbollah advance into this region. 

U.S. HIMARS

The CJTF-OIR forward push was augmented this week with the arrival of at least two U.S.  M142 HIMARS, a highly accurate HIgh Mobility Artillery Rocket System riding on the back of a 6x6 all-terrain vehicle which deployed into Al-Tanf. The introduction of the HIMARS has caused great consternation for the Russians, as well as the Iranians. It places Syrian-Hezbollah and other Iranian-militia troops at risk of devastating strikes should they make further moves into the CJTF-OIR Area of Responsibility (AoR) in southern Syria. HIMARS enables CJTF-OIR forces to reach out and touch the enemy up to 180 miles away.

13 June 2017:  The situation along Syria's southern border has seen dramatic change in the past 24 hours. The city of Dara'a just north of the Jordanian border is now under the control of the Syrian 4th Division and Hezbollah. Syrian anti-regime fighters have reportedly retreated south into Jordan or east towards the CJTF-OIR base at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing defended by US, UK, NATO and Jordanian SpecOps troops and air power.

Most other information of the past 48 hours about southern Syria is either disinformation or pure propaganda coming from Russian, Syrian, Iranian or their proxies. Further update coming...

11 June 2017: This past Tuesday, 6 June, coalition aircraft attacked a second convoy of Iranian, Hezbollah and Syrian armored vehicles and troops threatening the CJTF-OIR base at Al-Tanf. The convoy was stopped dead in its tracks, most of it destroyed. It is this region shaded gray in the above map and in detail in the below map where the Syrian war appears most likely, as has been started here previously, to be where a great clash continues to be on a steady simmer. 

On Friday, 9 June, as reported by The New Yorker, Iran-supported Shi'a militias reached the Syrian border from inside Iraq, and this is somewhat reflected in the above map. But the map has to be looked at closely. As you can see the primary route passes through Iraqi Kurdistan or Syrian Kurdistan. This hardly provides Iran clear passage from Iran to Lebanon, yet that is precisely what most media has been claiming, rather prematurely I might add. Iran does not control the major highways from its border to Lebanon.

The current eastern Syria war zone. ISW Graphic.

30 May 2017: Today, as reported by TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the not-so-veiled threat of a possible Russian-US military confrontation in eastern Syria. This is the potential confrontation Eschatology Today has been warning about in this series of Syrian Situation SITREPs. Lavrov accused the US-led coalition of directly infringing on Syrian sovereignty and said "these issues need to be settled, which is what our military is currently engaged in."  

The Iranian's are buoyed by this open Russian support for the combat operations their forces are engaged in eastern Syria and in northwestern Iraq (Hashd al-Sha'abi Shi'a militia), and now it appears they are seeking to directly engage in combat against the forces of the US-led CJTF-OIR and NATO which joined the Coalition effort recently. Iran informed Russia yesterday during a meeting in Moscow it is ready to double the size of the force it currently has deployed in Syria. The Hashd al-Sha'abi militia is rapidly becoming known as the Iranian Hezbollah of Iraq. This Shi'a Iraqi militia, under direct orders form the IRGC in Tehran will almost certainly now invade eastern Syria. 

The US has been dropping leaflets specifically instructing the Iranian militias and Hezbollah to withdraw their forces from the Syrian border regions on the Golan and Israeli frontier, and from all along the Jordanian border as well as the Iraqi border. The warning states that any movement of these Iranian forces towards CJTF-OIR Coalition and/or NATO forces will be viewed as hostile movements and attacked accordingly. The Iranian directed confrontation with US CJTF-OIR allies, the Kurdish/Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as the New Free Syrian Army is now only a matter of time. The literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 will be the result of this imminent warfare. 

28 May 2017: Al Mayadin (a/k/a Al-Mayadeen) is a small town in eastern Syria's Euphrates River valley. It lies closer to the Iraqi border town of Al-Qaim than it does to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Ar-Raqqa. Just to the north lies Dier ez Zor (a/k/a Dayr az Zawr), one of the focal points in the war against Islamic State. 

CJTF-OIR coalition aircraft are claimed to have stuck Islamic State assets in Al Mayadin on Wednesday, 24 May. Other organizations say the airstrike was by the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF). Almost immediately the Syrian regime, their allies in Russia and Iran, and alleged moderate Arab media (Aljazeera) and left-of-center US media (CBS, et. al.) began whining about fourteen alleged civilian deaths as a result of the strike which they blame on the US-led Coalition. 

This is rather telling as all of these media are utterly silent when it comes to civilian deaths due to Russian and Syrian military airstrikes since Russia's intervention in September 2015. Russian airstrikes have been conducted since that time with what various observing groups have said is a "reckless disregard for human life" in Syria. A conservative estimate of civilian death due to Russian airstrikes would be in the neighborhood 5,000 men, women and children. A liberal assessment would be double that number.

Due to the fact that all of Syria and much or Iraq are active war zones, any number of civilian deaths are unavoidable no matter whose bombs are falling. However, attributing those deaths falsely or using them for political expedience is just as abhorrent as the pure evil intent and ethnic genocide being perpetrated by the Syrian regime and their Russian and Iranian allies. The fact is that airstrikes and artillery barrages in this region, both Syrian Regime and their allies and CJTF-OIR are occurring every day, often overlapping one another. Accurate accounting of who, what when is very probably near impossible for any one or group of organizations due to the intensity of the warfare.

The truly big news for this SITREP is that NATO announced that it had joined the US-led CJTF-OIR operations against Islamic State as the strike on Al-Mayadin was being heralded in the media on May 25th. Also the ground war around Raqqa and elsewhere in eastern Syria is entering what may be a final phase that will result in its liberation from and the annihilation of Islamic State forces. We need to prepare ourselves for a series of really horrific news reports when these areas long under IS control are liberated. The depravity of the Islamic State is as bad or worse than anything that's occurred thus far in either Iraq or Syria since 2003.