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 B10-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part IV



Smoke rises from Al-Quneitra with Mt. Hermon as a backdrop.

UPDATE 28 April 2017: There is enough corroborating foreign media OSINT available to report that an Israeli fire mission also occurred early this week (Monday, 24 April) as another warning to Tehran, Damascus and Moscow. The IDF fired three high-precision ground-to-ground missiles from a position on the Golan destroying a Hezbollah armory within the al-Fawwar camp just outside of Quneitra, Syria.  

The al-Fawwar camp has been manned by Hezbollah-trained, pro-Assad conscripts known as (Syrian) National Defense Forces, or 'the Golan troop.' The three IDF missiles struck the intended target causing multiple high-order secondary explosions which obliterated the Hezbollah armory. It is also important to note that due to Moscow's failure to make any attempt to rein in the IRGC-commanded militias and Hezbollah forces closing in the Golan border the IDF missile strike occurred without Israel using the established hot line to inform Russian military forces in Syria of the fire mission it launched. In other words, IDF ground forces (Northern Command) are not communicating with Russian ground forces in Syria. Such silence equates to overt hostility.

Later in the day yesterday the IDF fired a Patriot air defense missile which intercepted and destroyed a probable Iranian drone that had just penetrated into Israeli airspace from Syria. In addition there a newspaper reports from Beirut, Lebanon stating the Syria has prepared four Scud missiles with half-ton warheads for launching against targets in Israel without warning. The situation on the Northern Front is currently as dangerous and unpredictable than it has been in decades.

27 April 2017: It has now become abundantly clear that the retreat of Syria's best remaining combat aircraft northward to Hmeimim Air Base leaves the whole of southern Syria open to Israel's best fighter aircraft, of which the F-35I 'Adir' is now firmly established at the top of the IAF's power pyramid. 

Early this morning there occurred a series of at least 5 major explosions followed by a huge fireball at the Damascus International Airport. Eschatology Today assesses that the only Israeli aircraft which could have conducted this stealthy strike would be the F-35I. No one saw them arrive, or leave, No Syrian or Russian air defense reaction occurred. 

There is also the near-admission of responsibility for this strike by Israeli Intelligence Minister, Yisrael Katz, who stated during an Israel Army Radio interview today, "We are acting to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon by Iran." Hezbollah's al-Manar radio agreed with Minister Katz in its own report.

We have known in recent month about Israel keeping close tabs on the Iranian/Hezbollah military advances on the slopes of Mt. Hermon and toward Quneitra on the Golan. This advance is intolerable from the Israeli perspective; Israel will never allow and Iranian Hezbollah to establish permanent bases in southern Syria. The presence of Syria's more elite forces (4th Mechanized Div/42nd Bde) mixed in with the advancing Iranian/Hezbollah columns provide no cover whatsoever. That Israel is striking to the rear of the advance of these forces of late (T4 strike and now Damascus Airport) must be seen as a clear warning by Israel of far, far worse to come should these advances continue.

Here's the current tactical picture and Israel's highly likely response to it. With Russia's tacit approval, the attempt to establish an Iranian/Hezbollah front against Israel from the Mediterranean Sea in southern Lebanon pivoting on Mt. Hermon and then through southern Syria southeastwards to the Golan Heights will leave Israel no other option than to execute its recently developed Gideon Doctrine into practice. Readers may recall we discussed this on Eschatology Today when the Gideon Doctrine was suddenly released in its sanitized public-release form in late 2015.

Eschatology Today believes there is a direct correlation between the warfighting foretold through the prophecies of Isaiah 17, Joshua 13 and Psalm 83 and Israel's "Gideon Doctrine." 

Simply put, the Gideon Doctrine is a warfighting doctrine which is based upon a very few key principles mirroring the national goals of the State of Israel and the current realities of the region.

1) Israel has no officially declared borders; 

2) Preserve Israel's values and character as a Jewish state; 

3) Secure the social and economic strength of the State of Israel; 

4) Secure regional and international status of the State of Israel while seeking peace. 

In order to accomplish these objectives the Gideon Doctrine recognizes that when war becomes an inevitability Israel must use the totality of all its military power in an overwhelming, offensive manner to crush all enemy forces. Therefore, the coming war can be seen as a preemptive no-holds-barred war to achieve the four key principles noted above. And when it happens, it will in all likelihood come without further warning.
  

Russian Air Defense Systems currently deployed to Syria

21 April 2017:  OSINT reports on the transfer of the remaining air worthy fixed wing aircraft  of Bashar al-Assad's remaining air force to Russia's Hmeimim Air Base south of Latakia  is confirmed. This redeployment effectively places the Syrian Arab Air Force under direct Russian air defense protection of the S-300 and S-400 AD systems. This is a prudent move as these antique Syrian aircraft of 1980's vintage have zero chance of surviving air-to-air combat with either the state-of-the-art IAF or US combat aircraft.

Note the new image above. The Russian AD systems did not give pause to Israel's air strike against the T4 air base recently. The IAF strike aircraft were well within the Russian air defense capabilities umbrella. The IAF aircraft must have been invisible to the Russian's state-of-the-art electronic warfare and radar systems at Hmeimim Air Base, or the Russian's simply allowed the devastating IAF strike to occur on their Syrian and Iranian/Hezbollah allies. Which of these possibilities is more plausible to you?

Knowing what's coming according to Bible prophecy makes the daily passage of time seem like watching individual grains of sand fall through the hourglass. However, today's exchange of mortar fire from the Syrian side and IDF artillery returning fire on the Syrian mortar positions serves to remind that there are  any number of fuses that could ignite the northern front.

Yesterday, 24 April 2017, the U.S. Trump Administration took the largely irrelevant step of placing economic sanctions on 271 individuals having direct ties to the Syrian chemical weapons program (CERS). Sanctions have never worked as a political tool, and this instance will be no exception in the history of economic sanctions.

Breaking News Alert 07-17: Wars and Rumors Thereof

🔺 20 March 2017: Two particularly hot items need to be reported as breaking news this morning.

Golan Reference Map

1. Yesterday Israel commenced a general call-up of its military reserve forces. The deteriorating situation around Gaza and Iranian-Hezbollah encroachment upon the Syrian side of the Golan are long-established red-lines that require a powerful military response. Recall that Israel's defense establishment declared some months ago that the next war started by HAMAS or Hezbollah would be the last.

2. The potential for a Korean War II to erupt in the very near future, if not preemptive strikes aimed at regime change in North Korea, are a very real possibility. 

Global SITREP A1-17: Israel Sovereignty

Full Sovereignty Israel

1 January 2017: Eschatology Today has come to learn that nineteen days from now with the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, his new administration will almost immediately begin to reverse 50 years of U.S. policy towards the State of Israel.  No longer will the sovereign State of Israel be constrained to act according to and within the constraints of American Middle East policy. Israel will be free to set its own national decisions with respect to the land it possesses in full sovereignty, to include Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

According to the Oslo Accords specific regions within Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank) were designated as administrative divisions, A, B, and C. Areas A and B are non-contiguous plots of land where a majority of the Arab population lives. Area C comprises over 60% of Judea and Samaria; a full 1,600 square miles of contiguous territory where well over 100 settlements and unrecognized outposts have been established since the Six Day War of 1967. The Israeli population of Area C is approaching 400,000 based in 135 settlements; the IDF says about 50,000 Arabs also live in this area. 

The Trump Administration would drop the longstanding U.S. characterization of these settlements as illegitimate and consider them as sovereign Israeli territory; and Arab populated areas would remain within full sovereignty Israeli control. The next logical step for the Israeli government would then be to take full possession of Area C as has been desired by Israeli government proponents of annexation for the past several years. 

This new Israeli sovereignty would also logically extend to the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem would no longer be described in divisive terms of east or west, but as one contiguous city being Israel's national capital, and the location of the U.S. Embassy.

Global SITREP D4-16: Syrian Chaos and a Certain Generation of Jews

Aleppo's Tariq-al-Bab neighborhood on 24 September 2016. Reuters photo.

UPDATED 25 September 2016: The Russian, Iranian/Hezbollah and Syrian government assault on Aleppo, where Sunni jihadist rebels and an estimated 250,000 civilians are trapped without running water, medical aid or sustenance. Over the past 48 hours the assault has been of an intensity never before seen in the Syrian civil war, and in all probability not seen since the wholesale flattening of European cities occurred during World War II. The civilian death toll in Aleppo is expected by on-scene observers to be of an equally unprecedented scale. With water supplies having been cut off to all of Aleppo an estimated 2 million people are at risk of dehydration and the usual accompanying outbreak of rampant disease. 

The city of Aleppo is literally being churned into heaps of rubble by incessant Russian air strikes, cruise missile and multiple rocket launch bombardment, artillery barrages and a combined forces ground assault led by Russian T-90 tanks. And this is just the start of the assault in which war crimes against humanity appear to be the norm. The phrase 'total war' is applicable to the destruction of Aleppo at this time. 

Let no one doubt the literalness of Jeremiah 49:23-27 and that of Isaiah 17 being in an active process of fulfillment before our eyes.


21 September 2016: So much for the US-Russian brokered ceasefire. It has been aborted. But this should come as a surprise to no one reading the Holy Bible or the interpretation of its prophecies presented here over the past several years. Based upon what the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were inspired by the LORD God to write thousands of years ago there is no question on how the war in Syria will be concluded. This is the truth behind the final words of this SITREP. If you want to see Bible prophecy come to a literal fulfillment in real-time before your eyes - Watch Syria!!! Damascus will cease to be a city and the nation of Syria itself will cease to exist.

The reasons for the coming literal fulfillment are not nearly as important as the soon-to-be-fact that Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 will come to their joint fulfillment exactly as they both foretell. If you've not read them before, by all means do so now. 

Does it really matter that warplanes of the Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve this week annihilated a Syrian Army position - either intentionally or purely by accident - near the eastern city of Deir-ez-Zor in a series of four strikes, or that Syrian MiGs bombed Dara'a, or that an agreed upon civilian humanitarian aid convoy unloading its precious cargo in Aleppo was bombed - an international war crime - by Russian aircraft, leaving Russia holding responsibility for the war crime, or that the stridently Islamist, US-armed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forced US Special Operations Forces (SOF) to leave the battlefield in the northern town of al-Rai? No, not at all. The end of Damascus and of Syria itself will occur exactly as it has been foretold to occur. Our God knew all these things would occur long before He passed on this knowledge to His prophets.

In Syria there are a plethora of alliances among fighting forces, too numerous to count  or too tenuous to matter, which are utterly meaningless in the long-run. Man-made truces are doomed to failure by the actions of men. And what has occurred this early week is just the beginning of far, far worse to come in Syria. These events all serve to vividly illustrate and provide a forewarning of the total chaos yet to occur in Syria... and here at home in the U.S.

The Islamist attacks in New Jersey (multiple IEDs in Seaside Park and Elizabeth), New York City (multiple IEDs) and the stabbings in Minnesota are all a part of the war Islam is waging against us. These attacks ARE the direct result of the unrestrained Obama Administration-sponsored importation of Islamic terrorists from the Middle Eastern warzone and their deliberate resettling in urban and rural  American towns. And we are allowing this to occur. They walk among us with IEDs and concealed carry handguns with which to shoot at local law enforcement. Obama is responsible for this; the blood is on his hands.

It used to be said that our troops were fighting terrorists on their home turf in the Middle East so that we would not have to fight them here on our turf. Obama, and soon Hillary according to her own words, have determined to bring the over abundance of Middle Eastern terrorists by their thousands into the United States, give them U.S. government welfare support and jobs so they can kill us in comfort and at their leisure. 

In Hungary, a truly massive wall is being built by the government along the entire length of its Serbian and Croatian borders to keep out the Middle Eastern terrorists flooding into Western Europe. One can legitimately refer to this an enforced moratorium on Muslim immigrants; it's what a nation's president must do to protect his people from cold-blooded murderers. In America, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is vilified and demonized by the Left and the Democrat Hillary Clinton campaign for just suggesting "extreme vetting" of Muslims and the building of a similar wall if elected. Is it not clear that the American Left is for the cold-blooded murder of America's citizens of every race, creed and color by Islamic jihadists?

And, no, there is no need to wait for our Dhimmi government in Washington, D.C. and other State capitals to officially determine that these attacks are the work of directly-linked Muslim terrorists (there is no such thing as a Muslim "lone wolf" terrorist), or that Islam is a clear and present danger to us all. That has been a known fact since Bill Clinton took office in 1993, over 23 years ago. 

As the Lord Jesus Christ said (Mark 13:7; emphasis added), "But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet."  War in Syria and war in America, we have been foretold about these events and yet we are clearly instructed by the Lord to not worry about them. For us, as it is written in Luke 21:13 concerning Jesus' instructions, this is our opportunity for testimony on the inerrant nature of His Word!  

And so I testify.

14 September 2016: As is often stated in many of Eschatology Today's SITREPs concerning the ongoing war, truth is always the first victim in any war. This became painfully evident once again when it was all but impossible to determine exactly what had occurred between Monday morning and this morning in and around Syria's Quneitra Governorate (province) abutting Israel's line of defense-in-depth in the Golan.

However, and despite the lack of accurate intelligence, something new and potentially game-changing must be noted.  In the past Israel has always held Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus as being solely responsible for any "spill-over" of the war on Syrian territory into Israel's territory. Israel's Air Force has now struck Syrian Army artillery positions at least twice in the past three days as a result of the spillover of rounds into Israel's Golan territory. This occurred even though hindsight may prove that it was Sunni jihadist artillery fire that struck Israeli territory, yet the Syrian Army still paid the price for the aggression.  Now an IDF spokesman has made it crystal clear that the anti-regime jihadist rebels will also be fired upon by the IDF if their artillery fire lands on Israel's side of the current border in the future.

In other words, the war in Syria could easily and very quickly become a free-for-all conflict with both the Syrian regime, its Iranian and Hezbollah allies, as well as the numerous Sunni jihadist factions targeting their weapons on IDF positions in the Golan or beyond. One does not need to be a prophet to see the net result should this potential become a reality as that kind of prophecy has apparently already been given by Isaiah and Jeremiah, and perhaps even Asaph.

Important Note: A Certain Generation of Jews 

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres (born Szymon Perski), who just turned 93 years old last month (1923-2016), recently suffered a stroke and is reportedly in "critical but stable" condition. 

Why is this important?  I believe this to be important to note because Shimon Peres is the last of Israel's 'founding fathers,' or those who were born prior to May 1948, alive today. Shimon Peres is the last of the generation that were living in the land and were directly involved in the founding of the modern State of Israel in a single day, as prophetically foretold in Isaiah 66:8. 

The subsequent generation of Israelis counts among its members one Benjamin Netanyahu, who was born in Tel Aviv on 21 October 1949, and is the current Prime Minister of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu will turn 70 years old on 21 October 2019. 

Readers of Eschatology Today all understand why I believe this is important. Jesus was directly answering His disciples, privately on the Mount of Olives, about their question concerning the sign of His coming, of the end of the age. And to this select group of Jews the Lord Jesus Christ said, "So you also, when you see all these things, know that it (or He) is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." 

To repeat for emphasis "...this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place."

Watch Syria!!!

Global SITREP A4-16: IDF Northern Front Exercise

IDF UH-60 Blackhawk in Northern Front Exercise (IDF photo)

21 January 2016: The IDF has conducted a two-week long warfighting exercise along the entire length of the border with Lebanon and Syria. The objective of the exercise was to train up land, sea and airborne elements of the IDF for a protracted, simultaneous war against Hezbollah and Islamist elements operating in both Lebanon and Syria.

Head of the Northern Command Gen. Aviv Kochavi, right, speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, center, alongside head of the Operations Directorate Gen. Nitsan Alon, during a military exercise on January 20, 2016. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Northern Command General Aviv Kochavi recapped the scope of the simulated warfighting as encompassing vast maneuvers, substantial firepower and offensive, high efficiency strikes on thousands of targets, including residential areas being exploited by the terrorist forces. Concurrent with this exercise the IDF has deployed mechanized artillery in many locations opposite Gaza.

In this activity we can see major elements of the prophetic pre-70th Week wars being actively readied in advance by the IDF, and which are currently missing only the Sinai and Jordanian sectors in the full-scope of the Psalm 83 scenario. As with most military pre-war planning, first contact with the enemy usually requires the implementation of additional ad hoc vignettes into the overall war plan. The IDF has proven itself extremely adept in this regard in the past, and as is evident in the prophetic narrative on these coming wars.

Global SITREP E4-15: An Inherently Dangerous Situation in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

Putin and his generals at the National Defense Control Center, Moscow

Update 17 December 2015: A bit of a history lesson is now necessary to understand why the current situation in Syria exists, and how it was as predictable as the fall of Iraq into the Iranian sphere, the  rise of the Islamic State: A lack of vision, leadership and willingness to apply the ultimate tool and force multiplier of foreign policy. To look at this in hindsight is like looking at a replay of a chess match in which one of the players is deliberately playing to lose.

We woke up yesterday to see that the US-led coalition supporting so-called moderate Sunni jihadist rebels against the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad had surrendered its very raison d'etre with the sudden announcement that the Obama Administration had abandoned its policy position that Bashar al-Assad must leave power.  How did this come about?

In the latter half of 2013 when Obama threatened to bomb Syria (i.e. start a war) because al-Assad had possession of and was using chemical WMD against the Sunni jihadist rebels. Obama stated he could launch this war against Bashar al-Assad's Syria without Congressional approval. It was a bluff. U.S. allies in Great Britain knew it from the get-go and so did the French. Absent any U.S. leadership this world-class ruse quickly fell on its face without so much as a whimper. 

The reason it did was the continuing effect of Obama's cut and run from the nearly won counter-terrorist war against the remnant Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). That cut and run retreat from victory was on full display. Within a very few months of the U.S. military retreat from Iraq the terrorists of AQI became the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and launched a blitz of conquest gaining vast territories and resources in both countries.  

To the north the Obama bluff resulted in blatant Russian aggression and the rapid military conquest of Crimea from Ukraine, and the continuing to this day Russian war of aggression that is seeking to dismember southern Ukraine from the rest of the country. 

In all of this there was not one scintilla of American leadership or pushback that amounted to anything approaching serious military or economic consequences for either of these enemies. Sunni terrorists were free to create a terrorist state, the essential requirement of Sunni eschatological belief - a Caliphate. To crown this infamous achievement, Obama then put up the false front of negotiations with Iran and Russia and achieved his goal of making Iran a nuclear weapons power. He essentially gave the Sunni a Caliphate and the Iranian-Mahdi hastening twelvers the Bomb.

In the face of such fecklessness the Russians now made manifest what Barack Hussein Obama had bluffed at two years previously - they put their combat power on the ground in Syria, in the skies, and on the ocean approaches in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and covered it with an anti-aircraft missile shield that has no bearing whatsoever in any conflict with the Islamic State because it does not have an air force or missile force. Moreover, the Russians also have a nuclear weapons umbrella with which to defend what they have achieved in the Levant.

Can you now see where this is all leading? Does the greater Middle East now not have the essential driver for and catalyst to bring about war on a scale never before visited upon these lands? Do you now see the enabler of flood-like Bible prophecy fulfillment that exists from southern Europe to northern Africa to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Peninsula to the Indian Ocean? And there is tiny but nuclear-armed Israel standing in the midst of it all.

14 December 2015: What I've flagged as an inherently dangerous situation in the Middle East grows more ominous with each passing day. If these SITREPs have not made the situation perfectly clear up to this point, one can only repeat that the I&W are that Russian forces in Syria have less to do with fighting the Islamic State and more to do with confronting the US-led Coalition and NATO head-on. 

Islamic State has no air force in Syria or Iraq. They have flight training simulators in the heart of their Wilayat Tripolitania (i.e. Sirte, and western Libya) but those assets will be soon be scrap metal due to imminent airstrikes from French and British aircraft. So what drives Russia's deployment of additional top-of-the-line Su-34 'Fullback' bombers and Su-30 'Flanker-C' and the launching of Kalibr cruise missiles from a submerged Kilo-class submarine in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea; the deployment gift of of T-90MS 'Tagil' Main Battle Tanks to the Syrian Army 4th Division, and regular flights over Iraqi airspace of Tu-160 'Blackjack' enroute to targets in Syria? 

Russian T-90 MBT

All of this Putin muscle-flexing of last week is a show specifically intended for NATO eyes. This week These Russian forces have an additional tasking order. On the direct order of Putin to the National Defense Control Center, led by Russian Army Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov, in Moscow this past Friday a shoot to kill directive was issued. This order is a direct warning to NATO that any detected threat, even the slightest action deemed to be a provocative threat against Russian forces anywhere in the region, will be fired upon with extreme prejudice and without hesitation. This is no FRAGO from Moscow, this is a direct order that any perceived threat is to be destroyed immediately. While some will attribute this threat as being directed solely at Turkey, the fact is that since Turkey is a member of NATO and is covered by the collective defense provision of Article V of the NATO Charter, any attack by Russia on Turkey will be viewed as an attack upon all of the NATO allies. 

Try not to blink, or you might miss what happens next.


9 December 2015: We're now seeing in the media the first public reports of what I first predicted one month ago (9 November 2015) would occur (now highlighted in yellow below) regarding the potential coming from Valdimir Putin of RUSSIAN tactical nuclear weapons becoming involved in the war against the Islamic State.  Russia fired Kalibr 3N-14/T SLCM cruise missiles (NATO Name: SS-N-30A) against Islamic State from a submerged submarine (the Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Along with this announcement from the Kremlin by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin added that the Kalibr can also be armed with nuclear warheads.This means, as if it is not obvious enough, that nuclear weapons are present within the Syrian war zone. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a banner head line for corporate global media in the next day or so, but I won't be holding my breath in anticipation of it.

29 November 2015: An unconfirmed report of extremely low credibility that has been picked up by some western media is claiming that Vladimir Putin will deploy 150,000 newly drafted Russian soldiers into Syria to destroy the Islamic State. The source for this claim is an Iranian website, Alalam.ir. Eschatology Today located this report at the VeteransToday website this morning.  

My assessment is that this report has extremely low credibility as written due to the fact that newly conscripted Russian soldiers are not formed into new fighting battalions and brigades. What occurs is that platoon and company-sized units of these draftees are inserted into existing units to replace an equal number of previously conscripted troops who are being discharged after their one-year term of service. Put another way, draftees fresh out of a three-month long tactical training boot camp would constitute a combat ineffective fighting force if they were summarily deposited into an ongoing war on a foreign land. Due to the accelerated nature of their boot camp these draftees have not trained to repair their fighting equipment in non-combat situations, much less in a fog of war, heat of battle environment. Thus a large number would probably be chewed up in pretty short order and unit combat effectiveness would nose dive. Therefore, the Iranian origin report is at best a rumor, and most likely intentional disinformation (i.e. they know our eschatology as well as we know theirs).

The current reality is that Russia's army is slowly being transformed into a professional fighting force, with its best units consisting of all-volunteer careerist troops. These are the combat brigades and types of troops that Russia would deploy if it were serious about annihilating Islamic State. Russian combat brigades would also have to enter the battlefield in concert and strategic coordination with a large number of American, Turkish, Jordanian, British, French and Iraqi combat brigades positioned in Turkey, Iraq and Jordan in order to bottle-up, cut-off and kill the Islamic State in a full-scale campaign across the deserts of Syria and Iraq. That is what a serious anti-Islamic State war would look like and the best chance of that happening would be an accord being reached at what is supposed to be a global climate summit of world leaders in Paris, France beginning tomorrow.

27 November 2015: The shoot-down of a Russian Su-24M bomber by a NATO member (Muslim Turkey) resulting in the killing of its pilot by Syrian jihadists (the navigator/weapons officer has been rescued), followed quickly by the shooting down of a Mi-8 SAR (Search and Rescue) helicopter and resultant killing of a Russian marine by U.S.-armed Muslim jihadists have to be linked together as a singular event in the mind of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. This event has to have been to impetus to cause the immediate change in the military dynamic and order of battle for Russian forces deployed in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. I assess with high probability and high risk that the first tangible evidence of the change in the military dynamic and order of battle will come in the form of hostile fire coming from the Russian missile cruiser Moskva. This ship has essentially been placed on orders from Moscow to shoot first and ignore all questions later.

The second change in the dynamic and order of battle is far more ominous. It will likely be the introduction of tactical nuclear weapons being transferred from storage in Crimea to the Russian flotilla in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Basel al-Assad Air Base (a/k/a Hmeimim Air Base) near Jableh from which the doomed Su-22M took of on its last combat sortie.  The introduction of Russian tactical nukes into this Middle Eastern war zone is something I put with much aforethought into the comment section of SITREP E2-15 on the morning of 9 November 2015. Understandably, no one touched that comment with a ten-foot pole. Yet here we are two weeks later and the introduction of those Russian tactical nukes into the Syrian battlefield is very much a part of the new dynamic and order of battle. 

Russia has announced the deployment to Syria of its S-400 Triumf (NATO: SA-21 Growler) SAM system. The S-400 Triumf is an upgraded version of the S-300PMU/3 SAM system. Details are in the image above. Awaiting Israel's and NATO's response to this deployment.

Speaking of Israel, there is a Russian-Israeli military understanding that has been published in Israeli media (JPost, etc.). As published this understanding holds that Israel Defense Forces will not shoot down Russian air force aircraft conducting strike missions in southern Syria (i.e. Dera'a) and which might accidentally enter Israeli airspace over the Golan region. According to a quoted IDF spokesperson, the lines separating IAF operational areas and Russian operational areas are clearly defined according to the understanding, and at least from the Israeli perspective, Russia is not seen as an enemy of Israel. Therefore the Russians are free to conduct their anti-terrorist airstrikes in Syria and Israel is free to conduct its anti-Hezbollah and anti-Iran airstrikes in Syria and Lebanon. In my opinion, this current understanding probably has the life expectancy of a soap bubble blown by a child's toy and will likely burst upon the first item of Russian airdropped munition which "accidentally" hits an Israeli position on the Golan. So, we'll wait and see as this war progresses.

A Couple of Other Odds and Ends:

According to a Washington Free Beacon staff report of 25 NOV15, the JCPOA nuclear agreement between the P5+1 nations and the Islamic Republic of Iran is not legally binding because President Obama did not require them to do so in order to bring the agreement into effect. In essence, and according to the Obama Administration via the U.S. State Department, the JCPOA is nothing more than a verbal agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. For those who have suggested that Jeremiah 49:34-39 has been preempted by the JCPOA nuclear agreement, you might want to reconsider your viewpoint - it is based upon nothing. 

The Atlantic published an interesting article on 24NOV15 titled "The War on ISIS: What's the Endgame?" The second sentence of the article caught my eye: 

"Today, the United States is contemplating a major expansion of its military campaign against ISIS. Driven partly by faith that the end times are imminent, ISIS has stepped up expeditionary attacks outside its caliphate, including the bombing of a Russian jet over Egypt, a suicide attack in Lebanon, and coordinated assaults in Paris."

If you follow that "end times" link embedded in the quote above it'll take you to another article from The Atlantic published in March 2015. That article makes clear that the Sunni eschatological theology underpinning the Islamic State is identical to that which we have known about the Twelver-Hojjatieh Shi'a clerics ruling in the Islamic Republic of Iran for the past 36 years and counting. The raison d'etre for both is that they believe they are "a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world." This is the bottom-line reason why Sunni Muslims have flocked from all over the world into Syria to join the Islamic State, receive military trained and return to their home countries, many disguised as "refugees" in order to execute attacks for the above stated purpose. The only difference between the Sunni jihadists and Shi'a jihadists and what keeps them at each others throats is that they each consider the other to be apostates of Islam. The Shi'a have their al-Mahdi-hastening Ayatollah Khamenei and his Twelver-Hojjatieh regime, and the Islamic State has their Caliph Ibrahim who is the al-Mahdi.

And speaking of Iran,  it has been confirmed that the Ayatollah's right-hand man and commanding officer for global terror operations via the IRGC Qods Force, 58-year old General Qassem Soleimani, was wounded in the ongoing battle southwest of Aleppo, Syria. Several reports have indicated that his wounding came as a result of a strike by a U.S.-made BGM-71E TOW anti-tank missile (as referenced in SITREP D10:15) and he was the principal of an immediate medical evacuation (Medevac) to a hospital in Tehran. This is just a step towards justice due to Soleimani for his role in the hundreds of American troops killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan by weapons Soleimani deployed on those battlefields.

Thus far the name and rank of Soleimani's IRGC-QF replacement on the Syrian battlefield is as yet unknown. The BGM-71E TOW missile also destroyed the Russian Mi-8 helicopter that was forced to land after being hit by groundfire during its SAR mission to recover the pilot and navigator of the downed Russian Su-24 bomber. Given the speed of the TOW strike and destruction the Mi-8 the proximity of the opposing forces to each other was within a couple hundred yards and clearly line-of-sight.

So, as we can probably all discern with relative ease, the deception is rampant and it is global, and it is something that we have to deal with until the moment we are commanded by Jesus, with the trump and voice of an archangel to "Come up hither!" (1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Revelation 4:1)

Global SITREP B18-14: Israel Strikes Syrian Military, Warns Damascus of a "Heavy Price" to be Paid

19 March 2014: In the overnight hours and this morning Israel fingered Bashar al-Assad's army as complicit in the roadside attack on IDF troops yesterday on the Golan. The IAF promptly went into action by launching strikes on a Syrian C2 (Command and Control) headquarters, a training site and Syrian artillery positions on their side of the Golan Line-of-Control (LoC). 

Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon then launched his own strike on Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad as bearing full responsibility for the action of his forces in aiding and abetting the attack on the IDF patrol yesterday. Ya'alon declared, "We won’t tolerate any breach of our sovereignty or attacks against our soldiers and civilians. We will react with might and resolve against anyone who acts against us, no matter where and when, as we demonstrated last night. Anyone who tries to attack us will be signing their own death sentence.”

Those are words someone with national authority should have spoken to Vladimir Putin in late February, but I digress. Wars and rumors of wars. Check. Stay tuned, and don't blink because just about anything could set any of several powder kegs off, the most devastating of which is the one prophesied to occur against Damascus. At this point I am wondering if Isaiah 17 is both a prophesy and a promise.