Global SITREP A9-20: Big Operations Coming and Ongoing

Merkava Mk4 MBT

UPDATE BELOW 24 February 2020: All indications point towards the IDF launching major military operations to fundamentally if not radically change the situation in Gaza. Such an operation could easily expand to operations against other military adversaries in the north.

Exact execution date/time is unknown, but it is close, possibly even within a week or so after the new election. The Likud currently leads in polling data, so PM Netanyahu may believe he has a free hand to do what has been promised for so long in the near term.

Map from Global SITREP C10-18  07SEP20`8

28 February 2020: Based upon the prophecy in Jeremiah 49:23-27 Eschatology Today has multipleblog posts anticipating a mjaor escalation in the fighting in northwestern Syria (Idlib Province) for the better part of two years. 

This morning an emergency meeting of NATO, under Article 4 of the NATO charter, will occur at Turkey's request following an airstrike last evening by the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) on Turkish armed forces in Idlib. The SAAF strike killed 33 Turkish soldiers. In retaliation Turkish airstrikes have been pounding a broad range of Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions and depots for hours on end, with the Turkish defense ministry estimating the neutralizing of at least 300 SAA troops, and other foreign sources estimating only a couple dozen SAA troops have been killed in the ongoing retaliation. 

Thus, the crisis between Turkey and Russia/Iran-backed Syria has reached an unprecedented level of escalation. Additionally, multiple intelligence reports confirm that two Russian naval frigates armed with Kalibur-NK cruise missiles have deployed the Mediterranean Sea from the RussianBlack Sea Fleet. One Russian lawmaker has directly threatened the Turkish forces. The cruise missiles almost certainly would be used against Turkish forces. Ironically, the Turkish forces in Idlib are there under an agreement with Russia to defend ethnic Turks from the SAA. Turkey and Russia are no where near being allies, even Iran is predicting a Turkish defeat in Syria.

In southern Syria last night there was a significant engagement between IDF attack helicopters and "Syrian" troops in the area between Hader and Quneitra on the Golan. The "Syrian" troops could be a mix of SAA, Hezbollah and IRGC-QF troops who are well-known to disguise themselves in SAA uniforms. There were two separate IDF heliborne strikes yesterday. In the first a high-level Hezbollah officer, Imad Tawil, was reportedly killed; in the second several of the "Syrian" troops were severely injured. These troops have been busy establishing forward combat positions on the Golan for IRGC-QF operations against Israel.

New developments today may resolve some of the ambiguities in current OSINT reporting. Watching closely...

Turkish Bayraktar TB2 UAV

UPDATE 10 March 2020: The crisis discussed above can now be understood in very clear terms. The all but full-scale war in Idlib, which had a good chance of pitting Turkey directly against Russian forces in Syria, resulted in an unambiguous Turkish victory. 

The hundreds of Syrian tanks and armored vehicles that were destroyed in and around the town of Saraqeb owe their miserable fate largely to the Turkish drone imaged above, the Bayraktar TB2. The relatively cheap drone was instrumental in not only halting the Syrians in their tracks but in getting Vladimir Putin's undivided attention. This resulted in the Erdogan-Putin summit and ceasefire agreement of last Thursday. Putin's attention was piqued by the fact that Turkey has sold several of the Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ukraine which could easily be turned loose on pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine to devastating effect.

Skirmishing in Idlib is sporadic, but these are nothing like the pitched battle of two weeks ago which destroyed the Syrian Army day and night without cessation. Russia could have intervened directly, but the cost over a small province such as Idlib was obviously not something Putin would go all-in on. So, for the moment a fragile ceasefire remains in place. Hundred of Turkish Army reinforcements have flooded into Idlib during the present lull. And that's all this is, a lull in the fighting.

Global SITREP C8-19: Crisis Points

22 August 2019: Jesus told us to "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." (Matthew 24:42) Been doing nothing but that, and especially of late. If you're watching in like manner as I, then perhaps your thoughtful prayer has been something akin to, "Lord if not now, then is there an emergency stop button for all the madness, lawlessness and hate in this world." Never before have I seen in my lifetime the things which have occurred in the past month. Surely the spirit of the antichrist has gone into overdrive of late, it is so blatant, so in our face, that there may be some feeling like the Corinthians did when Paul addressed them in his second letter. 

Well, we all know God is in complete control and there is no emergency stop button. Instead there is the Harpazo, and that blessed hope is anything but an emergency stop. Instead it's a full speed ahead throttle for all manner of things to get drastically worse. Imagine what would occur if the Harpazo occurred tomorrow. In Portland, Oregon or any large city, such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, LA or San Francisco where the Antifa domestic terrorists and other lawlessness and abject, depraved filth runs rampant; where law enforcement all but stands down because the socialist politicians who run such places really want that kind of mayhem as it suits their purposes very nicely indeed. 

I think we all agree that in a post-Harpazo America the very perception safety and security would rapidly go right out the window. That's what I saw this past week where the Philly PD had just rescued approximately 80 kids, aged 6 months to 10-years old, from a drug crazed radical Muslim with an AK-47 shooting wildly out the window, were turned on by the local residents because the LEOs had just shut down the neighborhood crack house. Forget the safety of the children rescued, they wanted their crack. It was big news, carried live on TV for hours on end, and then once facts were known the media pulled the plug; the facts weren't anything close to the image they wanted to present on American TV.

And you know what, this is just the tip of a monstrous iceberg that is pulling up right alongside the SS United States ship of state. The opposition Democraft party willl not only not denounce Antifa insurgents on our streets, but they're doubling down on the effort to remove President Trump from office. And I mean they want to remove him by any means at their disposal. Not the first time I've said this here, hopefully it will be the last time.

Meanwhile, across the oceans there are strong indications that the prophetic Psalm 83 scenario is very close at hand. Violence is very likely to begin within hours on the Gaza front, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced this week that they are at war with Israel. And Israel has suddenly made clear that its forces are operating in central Iraq against the Iranian PMU terror proxies under IRGC-QF control. Most interesting thing here, as it relates to Psalm 83:8, is that these very stealthy IDF attacks are occurring in the area formerly known as the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad. Why the Iranians have based their Shi'a Iraqi proxies in this particular region is no great mystery either. Nevetheless for a few weeks now the Israeli attacks have been devastating.

In Syria, the battle for Idlib is fast approaching another crisis point because the accords which Russia and Turkey reached last spring now to have collapsed. Turkish forces crossed into Syria and Syria dropped bombs as a shot across the head of the column. Russian and Turkish jets nearly clashed overhead this past week. And the expected crisis in this area, per our interpretation of Jeremiah 49:23, remains very much a crisis point.

Then there's a series of massive explosions that have occurred recently in Russia. The most significant was one which involved a weapon that was either nuclear powered or had a nuclear warhead, or both. The primary Russian radiation monitoring stations in this region have suddenly gone silent in an attempt to keep the lid on this disaster as was done in the Soviet days at Chernobyl. However, the radiation that resulted from the explosion was recorded and it was significant. There was also the recent secret submarine mishap plus a series of explosions that all but leveled the weapons depot and nearby towns.

Global SITREP B10-19:: Scaling Up The War Part III

Mount Hermon, Israel

UPDATED (below) 2 June 2019: Part III of this series begins with Israel having responded with great military force to rocket attacks from Syria this past weekend. The United States also reassured Russia that our support for Israel is unwavering as long as Iranian forces and their proxies remain in Syria.

The two rockets which began this flare of of fighting landed on the slopes of Mount Hermon, one is Israel and one not quite across the border. Israel's immediate response was to completely erase two Syrian Army artillery batteries, one east of beityama, the other west of Khan el-Shieh. Observation and intelligence posts in Quneitra and Tel al-Sha'ar, and an SA-2 SAM battery near Kiswah which was also eradicated.

Israel then closed the airspace over the Golan region effective from 06:30 this morning through approximately 21:00 on Thursday, 6 June. Then about three hours ago Israel began striking the T4 (Tiyas) Air Base with massive explosions being reported by Syrian media. It appears that Israel is striking Iranian weapons depots and armories at T4. 

Meanwhile, Russia, Syria and Iran are indiscrimanately bombing civilian areas in Iblib governorate. President Trump at 20:00 EDT this evening described this ongoing bombardment as butchery in advising Russia, Syria and Iran that "the world is watching. STOP!"

USS Abraham Lincoln Air Wing exercising with B-52H in the Arabian Sea.
This is one very rare sight to see!

7 June 2019: The immediate crisis between the U.S. and Iran subsided somewhat after the Iranian vessels that had missiles loaded into their launch tubes pulled into a port and the missiles were removed. These vessels were (and still are) under surveillance by U.S. intelligence assets on a 24/7 basis. Given the nature of the apocalyptic nature of the Twelver Iranian regime, the building U.S. posture to keep them in military check-mate has not subsided and will increase in the coming weeks.

On the Golan the tensions continue to rise. Israel detected, and in a rare move immediately made public, its detection of series of newly constructed Hezbollah outposts for observing the Israeli Golan. Also made public was the establishment of an IDF all-aspect intelligence collection apparatus dedicated to supporting the IDF Dotan division with real-time data acquisition. Never before has this type of real-time fusion between a combat division and on-site intelligence branch occurred in an Israeli front-line higher headquaters (HHQ). The obvious importance that Iran has attached to the ultimate high-ground of Mt. Hermon and its overview of the Golan and northern Israel belies their intentions. Further action here is imminent.

Over the years Eschatology Today has, due to the prophetic word of God found in the Book of Daniel, put an eye on the nation of Greece. Yesterday (6 June) an article was published by the Jewish World Review entitled "Greece Finds New Footing As a Player on the World Stage." The title is an instant attention grabber to anyone who knows Bible prophecy. Not lost is the fact that the article was written by the very astute writer Victor Davis Hanson. Eschatology Today has embedded a direct link, but advises that it is http versus a secure https link. in light of this, here are key takeaways from the article.

1.) Greece wants to host a far more lethal array of U.S. military power on a permanent base. There are talks ongoing precisely to this end. Given the expanding Israel, Cyprus and Greece military alliance a significant and permanent U.S. military presence in Greece makes great strategic sense, besides the fact (as long-term readers are aware) that it dovetails nicely with the Eschatology Today interpretation of military affairs in the eastern Mediterranean Sea leading up to and during Israel's 70th week of years. 

2.) As Turkey edges closer to Russia with the purchase of an S-400 SAM system, and the U.S. reciprocation of cancelling virtually all aspects of Turkey's participation in the foreign (NATO) military sales and pilot training in the F-35 program, the obvious counter-balance would be a much more integrated defense posture between Greece and the U.S., and which would also integrate near seamlessly with the increased defense integration of Cyprus and Israel that the U.S. also has developed recently. 

3.) This will only exacerbate the loggerhead issues between the European Union (principally German financial dictates) and Greece. Many Greek bitterly resent this aspect of the EU-Greek relationship. Should more nations, like Italy, Poland and other eastern EU member states drive wedges, the emergence of a new loosely aligned political block (some of the "Ten Toes") could rise rapidly and still be fully within the U.S.-led NATO alliance. Watch all of this develop rapidly in the coming months.