UPDATE 02 October 2015: In a very recent interview with PBS in New York City, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq offered an invitation to the Russian Federation to send its troops and aircraft to his country if it would be willing to join the anti-Islamic State coalition (led by the United States).
In this interview conducted on Wednesday, 30 September, PM al-Abadi also revealed that intelligence sharing between Iraq, Iran and Russia regarding air and ground combat operations against the Islamic State has been ongoing for at least the past 3 months. This means the Baghdad coordination center manned by a Russian three-star general, and Iranian general and an Iraqi general has been receiving intelligence information provided by the United States far longer than the coordination center has been known to exist. Is this how Russia knew precisely where to hit the US-backed rebels in Syria over the past two days in preparation for the expected land offensive by Iranian, Syrian and Russian marines? Are American combat forces in Iraq now at greater risk due to loose Iraqi lips? Stand-by.
30 September 2015: As expected and in the immediate aftermath of the Putin-Obama mini-summit at the UN headquarters in New York City, Vladimir Putin and his rubber-stamp Federation Council (upper legislative house of the Federal Assembly) have made President of the United States of America Barack Hussein Obama and his entire corps of mainstream media lap dogs look like rank amateurs. Within hours after Putin declared that Russia had no plans to deploy large numbers of combat troops into Syria, the exact opposite is now the fact as approved by the Federation Council.
Students of Bible prophecy should know that on the prophetic timeline following Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 there is no further mention of what we know as Syria in the prophetic texts, neither in the Psalm 83-related texts or Ezekiel 38/39. I believe we are now about to witness in real-time the reason for this omission. Unrestrained warfare will soon commence to consume and obliterate this land. Refugee problem? Humanitarian crisis? We have not seen anything yet.
In Russian strikes conducted today by Su-25 (NATO: Frogfoot) aircraft, who hit targets near Homs, Hama and Latakia governorates. While Russia claims they struck Islamic State targets, it is well known by Western observers that there are no Islamic State forces anywhere within a radius of 40 miles from these locations. Therefore, what the Russians aircraft struck were anti-Assad rebel forces other than Islamic State, possibly Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, or possibly other rebels supported by the US-led coalition. Map below.
In another bit of news, it is also being reported by Western military observers that there is severe disagreement, if not outright resentment, between loyal al-Assad officers of the Syrian Army and the Iranian officers of the IRGC who are in positions of command. Several Syrian officers have been put before firing squads for objecting too strenuously against the Iranians. A house divided cannot stand.
29 September 2015: Despite the recent Netanyahu-Putin mini-summit in Moscow, yesterday in New York the Russian Federation president made public his "worry" concerning Israel's retaliatory strikes against enemy fighting positions and command posts on the Syrian side of the Golan. This "worry" may belie a secret mutual defense agreement among the Syrian, Iranian/Hezbollah and Russian forces. At some point Russian forces may find themselves obligated or otherwise ordered to militarily respond to an Israeli preemptive or retaliatory strike against one or more of Putin's allies, such as Sunday's attack on the Syrian 90th Brigade command post which fired upon Israel under Iranian orders. The clear and present danger noted below just became a little more clear and dangerous.
21 September 2015: PM Netanyahu and a dozen of his IDF staff officers were in Moscow this morning to meet with Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin in order to negate the possibility of a military engagement between Israeli and Russian combat forces in or over Syrian territory.
Putin made it very clear that the objective of Russian forces deployed into Syria is the defense of the Bashar al-Assad regime against all of its enemies. This is a clear and present danger for Israel. I will state here what virtually all mainstream media are reluctant to put into print.
Syria's list of enemies includes the State of Israel. Since 1973 the two nations have remained in a state of war against each other, which amounts to a total of 67 years and counting to be precise.
It is also being reported that Vladimir Putin told Bibi Netanyahu that Russian military forces deployed in Syria will act in a responsible manner. This is no where near reassuring as it was without question Russian military forces taking part in the invasion of sovereign Ukrainian territory which shot down the civilian Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 fourteen months ago during its flight from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Russia and its Iranian ally both have considerable military forces in Syria; they are of one accord in the utilization of those forces. This presents a clear and present danger to the State of Israel, and Bibi Netanyahu can be under to illusion of reassurance coming from the leader of the Russian Federation.
17 September 2015: Looks like the folks at DEBKAfile have begun to read this blog. They've also included some commentary indicating they now fully understand the tactical urgent reason for the Russian military intervention as reported here in SITREP D6-15 on 14 September. This is a good thing. What remains to be seen is if Israel's political leadership will call out Russia's political leadership for the egregious lies given to them regarding ongoing Russian combat operations.
The ingredients for a military miscalculation in the virtual free-for-all warfare going on in Syria increases with each new day. As Russia's military operations expand outwards into central Syria they will eventually make hot contact with Kurdish YPG rebels fighting against al-Assad's army who have US Special Forces embedded with them as "non-combatant advisors." The entire mess in Syria could turn wicked ugly very quickly.
UPDATED 16 SEPTEMBER 2015: The image above was taken by a Syrian photo journalist near Latakia, Syria is proof positive that the Russian Federation intends to engage in full-scale combat operations against any and all jihadist armies fighting to overthrow the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad. In this image is seen one of the Russian army's jam-resistant R-166-0.5 command and control HF/VHF/UHF communication vehicles. Thus far the reported eight of these vehicles in Syria constitute a battalion-level signals unit to provide continuous voice and data command and control signals to an entire brigade combat team from line-of-sight to distances of well over a thousand miles. This means well over a thousand Russian combat troops will likely be deployed into northwestern coastal Syria in the coming days, with larger numbers to follow by both air and sea.
In this interview conducted on Wednesday, 30 September, PM al-Abadi also revealed that intelligence sharing between Iraq, Iran and Russia regarding air and ground combat operations against the Islamic State has been ongoing for at least the past 3 months. This means the Baghdad coordination center manned by a Russian three-star general, and Iranian general and an Iraqi general has been receiving intelligence information provided by the United States far longer than the coordination center has been known to exist. Is this how Russia knew precisely where to hit the US-backed rebels in Syria over the past two days in preparation for the expected land offensive by Iranian, Syrian and Russian marines? Are American combat forces in Iraq now at greater risk due to loose Iraqi lips? Stand-by.
30 September 2015: As expected and in the immediate aftermath of the Putin-Obama mini-summit at the UN headquarters in New York City, Vladimir Putin and his rubber-stamp Federation Council (upper legislative house of the Federal Assembly) have made President of the United States of America Barack Hussein Obama and his entire corps of mainstream media lap dogs look like rank amateurs. Within hours after Putin declared that Russia had no plans to deploy large numbers of combat troops into Syria, the exact opposite is now the fact as approved by the Federation Council.
Students of Bible prophecy should know that on the prophetic timeline following Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 there is no further mention of what we know as Syria in the prophetic texts, neither in the Psalm 83-related texts or Ezekiel 38/39. I believe we are now about to witness in real-time the reason for this omission. Unrestrained warfare will soon commence to consume and obliterate this land. Refugee problem? Humanitarian crisis? We have not seen anything yet.
In Russian strikes conducted today by Su-25 (NATO: Frogfoot) aircraft, who hit targets near Homs, Hama and Latakia governorates. While Russia claims they struck Islamic State targets, it is well known by Western observers that there are no Islamic State forces anywhere within a radius of 40 miles from these locations. Therefore, what the Russians aircraft struck were anti-Assad rebel forces other than Islamic State, possibly Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, or possibly other rebels supported by the US-led coalition. Map below.
In another bit of news, it is also being reported by Western military observers that there is severe disagreement, if not outright resentment, between loyal al-Assad officers of the Syrian Army and the Iranian officers of the IRGC who are in positions of command. Several Syrian officers have been put before firing squads for objecting too strenuously against the Iranians. A house divided cannot stand.
29 September 2015: Despite the recent Netanyahu-Putin mini-summit in Moscow, yesterday in New York the Russian Federation president made public his "worry" concerning Israel's retaliatory strikes against enemy fighting positions and command posts on the Syrian side of the Golan. This "worry" may belie a secret mutual defense agreement among the Syrian, Iranian/Hezbollah and Russian forces. At some point Russian forces may find themselves obligated or otherwise ordered to militarily respond to an Israeli preemptive or retaliatory strike against one or more of Putin's allies, such as Sunday's attack on the Syrian 90th Brigade command post which fired upon Israel under Iranian orders. The clear and present danger noted below just became a little more clear and dangerous.
21 September 2015: PM Netanyahu and a dozen of his IDF staff officers were in Moscow this morning to meet with Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin in order to negate the possibility of a military engagement between Israeli and Russian combat forces in or over Syrian territory.
Putin made it very clear that the objective of Russian forces deployed into Syria is the defense of the Bashar al-Assad regime against all of its enemies. This is a clear and present danger for Israel. I will state here what virtually all mainstream media are reluctant to put into print.
Syria's list of enemies includes the State of Israel. Since 1973 the two nations have remained in a state of war against each other, which amounts to a total of 67 years and counting to be precise.
It is also being reported that Vladimir Putin told Bibi Netanyahu that Russian military forces deployed in Syria will act in a responsible manner. This is no where near reassuring as it was without question Russian military forces taking part in the invasion of sovereign Ukrainian territory which shot down the civilian Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-17 fourteen months ago during its flight from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Russia and its Iranian ally both have considerable military forces in Syria; they are of one accord in the utilization of those forces. This presents a clear and present danger to the State of Israel, and Bibi Netanyahu can be under to illusion of reassurance coming from the leader of the Russian Federation.
17 September 2015: Looks like the folks at DEBKAfile have begun to read this blog. They've also included some commentary indicating they now fully understand the tactical urgent reason for the Russian military intervention as reported here in SITREP D6-15 on 14 September. This is a good thing. What remains to be seen is if Israel's political leadership will call out Russia's political leadership for the egregious lies given to them regarding ongoing Russian combat operations.
The ingredients for a military miscalculation in the virtual free-for-all warfare going on in Syria increases with each new day. As Russia's military operations expand outwards into central Syria they will eventually make hot contact with Kurdish YPG rebels fighting against al-Assad's army who have US Special Forces embedded with them as "non-combatant advisors." The entire mess in Syria could turn wicked ugly very quickly.
UPDATED 16 SEPTEMBER 2015: The image above was taken by a Syrian photo journalist near Latakia, Syria is proof positive that the Russian Federation intends to engage in full-scale combat operations against any and all jihadist armies fighting to overthrow the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad. In this image is seen one of the Russian army's jam-resistant R-166-0.5 command and control HF/VHF/UHF communication vehicles. Thus far the reported eight of these vehicles in Syria constitute a battalion-level signals unit to provide continuous voice and data command and control signals to an entire brigade combat team from line-of-sight to distances of well over a thousand miles. This means well over a thousand Russian combat troops will likely be deployed into northwestern coastal Syria in the coming days, with larger numbers to follow by both air and sea.
And here below is a recent satellite image (click on the image for full details) of the Russian forward operating base (FOB) being stood up at the former Bassel al-Assad International Airport adjacent to the coastal town of Jableh, just south of the port at Latakia. This well-annotated image makes it absolutely clear that Russian military forces intend to remain in Syria for a very long time indeed.
Russian fighter aircraft and attack helicopters will be stationed here, and twice daily flights of war materiel direct from Russia on An-124 Condor strategic lift aircraft have occurred continuously over the past few weeks. The improvements being made to this as yet unnamed FOB appear to have commenced not-so-coincidentally around the time of the signing of the JCPOA agreement with Iran. This newly acquired Russian base in Syria is proof positive that the Obama Administration has been played the willing fool once again by Russia and Iran; that its foreign policy with respect to Russia, Iran and Syria has attained an unbelievably higher level of incompetence than its unilateral withdrawal from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom had previously evidenced.
These are the type of things that make what was all but inconceivable a couple of weeks ago a virtual reality now and into the near-term future. However, that said and with an eye to the literal prophetic word of the Lord, Ezekiel tells us that Gog of Magog "will come out of his land in the utmost north (tsaphown yĕrekah)" which is much farther distant than northern Syria. In fact, within the Ezekiel 38/39 prophecy there is no mention of Syria whatsoever, nor is any other country currently located on Israel's present borders or future border. This is rather anomalous considering the many nations of this confederation that constitute a rather detailed or itemized list. This leads me to conclude in analysis of current events that this Russian military presence in Syria is not long-term and limited in scope for one or more unforeseen reasons, but which may well be directly related to the events foretold in Jeremiah 49:23-27, and which constitute a prophetic direct link to Isaiah 17.
