Global SITREP C1-22: Strikes in Syria Continue

 

Image capture: Masyaf, Syria 13MAY22

2nd Update Below 16 May 2022: Turning a watchman's gaze to Syria... again.

This past Friday the IAF repeatedly struck an underground bunker and tunnel complex is the vicinity of Masyaf, Hama Province, Syria. This facility struck was constructed after previous IAF strikes destroyed similar structures in this area.

These strike completely obliterated the newly constructed bunker and tunnel complex. Initial reports are of several dead and many wounded in the Friday strikes. The  nine dead and dozen wounded in the strikes are presumed to be Syrian, Iranian/IRGC and Iraqi Shi'a militia and Lebanese Hezbollah. A Pantsir air defense system and its crew which were targeting inbound IAF missiles and aircraft was also annihilated.

The assessment is that retaliation is a certainty. 

17 MAY 2022: The war alert level is higher than assessed previously.

In the past week intelligence collection has discovered that Iran has successfully transferred a number of Kh-55 Granat (Soumar) cruise missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon. These cruise missiles we've noted previously, were reverse engineered from their original nuclear-capable Russian design.

Hezbollah, or IRGC troops in Lebanon, can utilize these weapons to strike as Israel's off-shore oil and gas platforms or any other strategic target in Israel that would fit in their determined Order of Battle (OOB).

This intelligence discovery immediately preceded the series of strikes at the now eliminated underground facilities and tunnel complex around Masyaf, Hama Province in Syria last on 13 May. Locating the surviving Kh-55s is certainly a very high priority for the IDF. Additional strikes are a certainty, and one of which could ignite the expected fulfillment of the parallel Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 prophecies.

UPDATE 18 MAY 2022: Reports have begun to emerge that Russia fired an S-300 (NATO Name: SA-10 GRUMBLE) air defense missile at an IAF F16I Sufa strike aircraft during its attack on the underground bunker complex at Masyaf on 13 MAY.  

The SA-10 missed its intended target for one of two possible reasons. Either the Russian's radar lock-on was never achieved (indicating possible Syrian operation of the battery), or the F-16I Sufa's Electronic Warfare Counter-Measures (EWCM) sent the Russian missile off chasing phantom ghosts. The second reason seems the most plausible. 

The bottom line here is two-fold: The F-16I Sufa returned to base safely and the Russian S300/SA-10 Grumble battery at Hmeimim has finally fired upon Israeli aircraft striking Iranian targets in Syria in anger. A secondary outcome is also likely to present itself shortly, and that is Israel's practice of informing Russia in advance when its aircraft will strike Iranian targets in Syria will be abandoned thereby increasing the risks of a direct Israel-Russia military clash in Syrian skies.

Global SITREP B5-19: IAF Standoff Strike on Iran in Syria

DELILAH ALCM: 25 YEARS OF SUCCESSES

UPDATED 17 April 2019: A (clickable) ISI satellite photo reconnaissance image has been added below showing the utter devastation the IAF's Delilah missiles wrought on the Syrian-Iranian missile installation in Masyaf. This area has at least one Russian S-400 and three newly acquired Syrian S-300 anti-air missile batteries very nearby for defense. None of them were activated to bring down Israel's now decades old Delilah missiles. The Iranian's must be completely livid with their erstwhile Russian and Syrian allies as strike after strike of the IAF occurs unimpeded, laying waste to their facilities and personnel with regularity and precision.

Now, for those who are wondering, here is the prophetic perspective that Eschatology Today believes is in play here. As noted several times previously, the military action that is described by the Scriptures in Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 make it crystal clear that Damascus is a populated city during a time of conflict when catastrophe strikes. Jeremiah was inspired by the LORD God to make a lamentable point of this fact in verse 25: "Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?" All who are in Damascus at that time shall fall over dead in her streets; they will be cut off by fire.

As can be seen in this image of Tahrir Square in Damascus taken on the morning of Monday, 15 APRIL 2019 this city is anything but a heap of ruins. The drivers of these  hundreds of taxis and  privately owned cars are protesting the severe shortage of gasoline in the city. The Al-Firdous Mosque is directly across the square from the camera's point of view. Does Damascus look deserted? Is it in ruins? Tahrir Square is downtown Damascus. The "Grandpa Fuel Station" is on the right-hand side of this image. The prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 are most certainly in a process of fulfillment, but obviously they have not yet arrived at that point. Soon.

The 21st Century destruction of Damascus has the appearance of a nuclear strike according to the Scriptures. So this begs the question: Is this destruction of Damascus the result of a Syrian/Iranian biological/chemical first strike upon Israel? This is the view Eschatology Today has held for at least two decades. And that means a strong concern that the expected retaliation - of which there has been exactly zero of any consequence thus far since the IAF strikes began - could be exactly that, a bio-chem WMD strike upon Israel for which Israel retaliates by nuking Damascus. 

And that is the point where it really hits the fan, because as Isaiah tells us, not only does Damascus get burnt and crisped, but the whole of Syria fails to survive the conflict. This also is a likely scenario under which all of the other prophetic flood of prophecies go into fulfillment. Why wouldn't Israel's enemies go full bore after her, as Asaph informs in Psalm 83, when they see an Israel reeling following a substantial WMD attack? In military tactical and strategic terms, it's a virtual no-brainer, yet we'll see how it actually transpires.

13 April 2019: Last year when Russia delivered the S-300 anti-air missile batteries to Syria and began training Syrian troops in their operation, many hand-wringers said that it marked the end of Israel's freedom of action in Syrian skies. What took place at 02:30 in the morning today at Masyaf, Syria resoundingly put that falsehood to bed without any supper.

The secondary site of Iranian-Syrian facilities in Masyaf for making precision improvements to the highly mobile, Iranian-made Zelzal-2 rockets, were wiped out by the Israeli F-16I Sufa aircraft while over over Sidon, Lebanon, a distance of about 250 kilometers. From this location the Sufa's cut loose their battle-proven Delilah Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCM). It was these vary facilities which received a contingent of the Syrian-manned S-300s specifically to defend them from Israeli air attack. In 2018 the primary facilities in this area, about a dozen buildings in total, was struck by the IAF, wiping out the entire chain-like series of missile production facilities (35.10N 36.38E). The strike this morning took out the closely related facilities (35.08N 36.34E) about 2 miles to the southwest.

INTELLI TIMES Composite Image of the Masyaf strike of 2018-2019

Same buildings as in left-side of the image above, but rotated a little over 45 degrees to the right.
Notice the primary missile production hangers are utterly obliterated. Courtesy: ISI.

In the past week, and perhaps much longer, IRGC-linked 747 cargo aircraft have been closely monitored by Israel and the U.S. intelligence collection assets as they flew from Iran to the Syrian T4 Air Base. Dozens of round-trips have been catalogued. It was apparently assessed that specialized components and other materials were then transported overland, through Homs, to the second group of facilities at Masyaf. A little more than three days since the Netanyahu/Likud election victory and the war to remove Iran from Syria has been resumed. Now the watch for some type of retaliation begins.