Global SITREP E3-15: NATO Military Forces Return to Middle East for War on Islamic State

BREAKING: A Turkish (NATO) F-16 Shot Down a Russian Su-24 "Fencer" Bomber This Morning

 UPDATE 24 November 2015: A Russian Su-24 (NATO Name: Fencer) flying out of Basel al-Assad Air Base near Jableh, Syria was shot down this morning by a Turkish Air Force (NATO) F-16 fighter after ignoring ten warnings by the Turkish air defense to acknowledge his location and to depart Turkish airspace immediately. The Russian pilot and his weapons officer reportedly bailed out after being hit by an air-to-air missile fired by the Turkish (NATO) F-16. 

According to sources on the ground the Russian aviators have likely been captured by a faction of Islamic jihadist rebels, possibly the Al-Qaeda aligned al-Nusra Front which is known to operate in this region, or a local Turkmen tribal militia. Heliborne Russian forces also from the same air base near Jableh were reportedly engaging in attempting a rescue of the downed aviators who were last seen attempting to evade jihadist rebel capture in the area of Yaylidagi, Hatay Province, Turkey and Latakia Province in Syria.

We now have the expected direct clash between NATO and Russian military forces as a direct result of Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war, and directly from Russian bombing of Turkmen villages in Syria which the Turkish government views not as jihadist rebel forces, but civilians defending their homes during a civil war. Turkey has previously warned Russia against attacking these Turkmen villages citing severe consequences if the bombing attacks continued. NATO's governing North Atlantic Council also warned the Russians of "extreme danger" in flying their aircraft within Turkish airspace. Clearly this was an impetus for the Turkish (NATO) shoot-down of the Russian Su-24 bomber. 

Russian Federation President Putin has called the Turkish shoot-down "a stab in the back" and "a crime." Both the Russian pilot and the weapons officer are now confirmed dead. Turkey's foreign ministry in Ankara has summoned the Russian, French, British, American and Chinese ambassadors. NATO has convened an emergency session to deal with this emergent crisis.

23 November 2015: Russian bombers flying direct from southern Russia, and with Iranian Air Force fighter escort, have over the past couple of weeks undertaken the wholesale carpet bombing of southern Syrian towns from Daraa in the tri-border region of Israel, Syria and Jordan (Bashan and the cities of Aroer region) to the Israeli Golan border. The city of Nawa, with its population of just under 60,000 souls and lying just 10 miles east of the Israel-Syria border in the Golan, has been literally wiped off the map; nothing is left of Nawa but heaps of ruins. Another town of perhaps 25,000 known as Sheikh Maskin is today in the process of being annihilated in the same manner. 

One would think the movement of possibly as many as 100,000 refugees towards the Jordanian border might elicit reporting in some media. I have yet to locate such reporting, so the assumption is that the refugees are sheltering in other regional towns, or large numbers of them are dead. Since the spring of 2015 Nawa and the immediate region of southern Syria west of Daraa has been a hotly contested battlefield between a three-way free-for-all of combatants that includes Syrian government troops, the Free Syrian Army, and the Army of Jihad which is a combination of Al Qaeda and Islamic State  forces. It appears that the Russian Air Order of Battle planners decided to "island hop" by systematically wiping out the cities which dot the countryside of southern Syria and the factions of fighters which are based in them. The risk of an engagement with Israeli forces is now higher than it has ever been.

Also, according to Breitbart News Daily (Sirius XM Radio) this morning, in Belgium, Italy and the UK heavily armed combat troops are patrolling the upscale downtown areas of Brussels, Rome and London in a manner not seen since the end of World War II. The troops are conspicuously absent from the predominantly Muslim populated areas from which the terrorist threat is emergent.

19 November 2015: If my Indications & Warnings (I&W) had a meter needle it would be pegging right now as condition red. Above is a recently released BOLO image (WTTG-TV Fox affiliate in Washington) of four, over-dressed for the weather, Middle Eastern males captured on a Pentagon Metro Station surveillance camera. This image is a screen capture from Sunday evening. These four are suspected of conducting pre-attack terrorist surveillance of the Pentagon. This is at the top of my rapidly populating I&W list today. Being succinct as always, be aware and alert of your surroundings, see something-say something. Flood waters are rising rapidly.

Related: A Stressed FBI Braces for IS Holiday Attacks - WashTimes, 17 NOV 15 

18 November 2015: This should come as no surprise to Eschatology Today readers. The USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and its Carrier Strike Group Eight has just begun an expedited deployment from Naval Station Norfolk to the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea where they will soon join the on-station NATO fleets known as Standing NATO Maritime Group One and Two (SNMG1 and SNMG2) and the French Navy nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91). CSG-8 includes the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio, and guided missile destroyers USS Bulkeley, USS Gravely and USS Gonzalez and one or more unidentified nuclear fast attack submarines, as well as nine carrier air wings collectively known as CVW-7 embarked. CVW-7 has five wings of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and F/A-18G Growlers. The SNMG1 and 2 includes surface and subsurface combatant ships from all NATO countries. Also to join in this build-up of forces in the Mediterranean Sea is the independent British Task Group Cougar.

The NATO naval operation known as Operation Active Endeavor was resumed on 11 November and CSG-8 will join it after transiting the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually the Truman CSG will transit the Suez Canal and Red Sea to continue its deployment into the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf/U.S. 5th Fleet. Please keep the several thousands of these Sailors, Airmen and Marines in your prayers as they join the battle against Islamists who seek to exterminate our civilization by murdering defenseless civilians.

~~~

While not directly related to these military movements, Breitbart has posted a report on Pope Francis delivering a sermon to 10,000 pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square on the Sunday after the 13 November Islamic assault Paris. This was a sermon unlike any I have seen coming from the lips of a Roman Catholic Pope in a very long time, if ever, because he included a direct reference to the Harpazo/Rapture.  

In his sermon, which was laced with end times Scripture - such as Jesus' Olivet Discourse - the Pope used the carnage of Paris, upon which he squarely and rightfully based on the ideology of Islam, as a back-drop in urging Christians to be prepared for the end times and to be ready at any moment to meet the Lord face to face.