Global SITREP B6-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part II

Location of Shayrat Air Base in west-central Syria

FINAL UPDATE 8 April 2017: This will be the final update for SITREP B6:17 so that it doesn't become too large. Subsequent related events in Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean or elsewhere in the Middle East will be covered in The Syrian Situation Part III SITREP.

As most are now aware the USS Porter and USS Ross launched 30 Tomahawks each. One of those cruise missiles malfunctioned and fell harmlessly into the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. As military operations go, this was a very limited, extremely precise, meticulously planned and professionally executed strike mission. This strike mission could have been a much larger operation, but in the deliberations over what the US should do the concept of proportionality was the key determining element on the scale of operation the US would execute. It was the correct option that was chosen.

The message this strike mission sent to the most hostile governments in Syria, Iran and North Korea was as precise as the strike itself. Those government's understanding of the message is another matter entirely and out of any human control. Ditto for the Russian government. Xi Jinping wears three hats: he is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party; the President of the People's Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. That this strike was prepped and ultimately occurred while Xi Jinping was dining with President Trump in the middle of their very first and extremely important summit meeting is positively astounding. The effect must have been nothing short of seismic. 

In fact, the entire world was sent the unmistakable message that the United States of America is back, and back in increasing power on the global stage; gone like the wind was the pontificating but do-nothing America of Barack Obama. And the whole world was put on notice and has taken notice - friends and foes alike. Clean-up in aisle planet earth, which is overdue as a result of the eight Obama Administration years, is happening in real-time.

I have always believed that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is largely the Lord's omniscient forewarning about the results of the free will decisions that human governments and their leaders will make in the future. That is what I believe is occurring now and will occur in the immediate future because Bible prophecy, as with the entire Word of God, is inerrant and fulfilled as explicitly as it has been written. So it will be with Jeremiah 49:23-27 and Isaiah 17. 

7 April 2017: Less than 24 hours later and the now highlighted analysis provided below has become real-world fact: the United States of America, a nation far too many Bible scholars and teachers of last days eschatology have opined to play no-role in last days prophetic fulfillment, has just done exactly that. A few hours ago U.S. executed a key event in the ongoing fulfillment of Bible prophecy found in the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah. Action such as the United States has just undertaken in Syria are commonly known in today's parlance as a "game changer." FACT: as witnessed by innumerable individuals around the world, the United States has been a central player in the literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy since Israel's re-birth in 1948.

On the order of U.S. Commander-In-Chief Donald J. Trump the United States Navy's guided missile destroyers Porter and Ross (DDG 78 and DDG 71, respectively) launched a total of about 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles each at Bashar al-Assad's Shayrat (Ash Sha'irat) Air Base where the chemical attack of three days ago on Khan Sheikhoun was determined through all-source intelligence analysis to have originated. (Additional and graphic details HERE.) The U.S. Tomahawks began impacting the base at 3:45 AM this morning Syrian time, or approximately 6 hours prior to this posting.

October 2016 DigitalGlobe satellite image of Ash Sha-irat Air Base southeast of Homs, Syria 

A damage assessment image of Shayrat air base in Syria, following U.S. Tomahawk Land Attack Missile strikes on April 7, 2017 from the USS Ross and USS Porter, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. DigitalGlobe/U.S. Department of Defense/AP

The forty aircraft shelters known to be at Ash Sha-irat probably each received at least one Tomahawk. So did the anti-air positions and fuel depot. Ash Sha-irat Air base is now also known to be a Syrian chemical weapons storage site. All anyone can do is hope the remaining 20 Tomahawks destroyed the chemical weapons bunkers at Ash Sha-irat Air Base, but it also should go without saying that Bashar al-Assad did not have all of his chemical weapons eggs in this one basket. Syria has now been found guilty of crimes against humanity, and its allies (Russia, Iran/Hezbollah and North Korea) are complicit in these crimes which now span from December 2012 to April 2017. The Obama Administration is now also complicit with the Russian Federation in fomenting a bald-faced lie regarding Syrian Weapons of mass Destruction. To borrow a phrase, Obama lied and Syrian children and babies died.

At approximately 01:30 hours this morning (EDT in Washington, D.C.) the Bashar al-Assad government released a statement calling the U.S. strikes on Ash Sha-irat Air Base "aggression" which had caused "losses."  Responsibility for this attack is also borne by the Russian Federation which had caused a boondoggle in the UN Security Council deliberations of yesterday due to its persistent objections in defending the al-Assad regime and threatened veto over the text of a condemning resolution. That failed diplomatic tactic convinced U.S. National Military Authority to strike immediately. 

For his part Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin released a statement through his spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Russia regarded the American strike as "aggression against a sovereign nation" based upon a "made-up pretext." The U.S. and Russia are now locked into opposing sides of what amounts to a military confrontation on a Middle Eastern battlefield. 

Final assessment for this update: The Syrian capability to continue to use its banned chemical weapons against its enemies has only been very moderately reduced as a result of the Tomahawk strike on Ash Sha-irat Air Base, which is now a smoking pile of rubble. While the American Tomahawk strikes are currently billed as "one-off" there is little doubt that additional attacks by Al-Assad using WMD on his own people will result in fresh attacks on his military forces - who are defended by Russian military forces. 

Not to jump too far ahead of the present situation, but according to Bible prophecy, the Syrian government will be proven to have learned nothing from the lesson this strike was intended to have taught them. Bye bye Damascus; Bye bye Syria.

More updates to follow...

Map of Syria: Areas of Control, Khan Sheikhoun Sarin Attack 

6 April 2017: Instead of posting an update to Global SITREP A9-17, I've decided to post this as Part II of that SITREP, along with the understanding that this is also an near-real time update to what was being discussed in the preceding Global SITREP B5-17. In fact, it seems at this point a lot of prophetic Scripture is running together as it they were a stampede.

Firstly, the map (clickable) above illustrates the current lines and areas of control of the factions involved in the Syrian civil war as well as the location of the Sarin gas WMD attack by the government of Bashar al-Assad upon the civilians of the rebel-held city of Khan Sheikhoun. 

There are two critical things to note immediately. Some of you who've been reading Eschatology Today in the past several months are probably already aware of what will once again be stated. Based upon Jeremiah 49:23 the high probability has been repeatedly stressed of some major catastrophe occurring in northwest Syria. A weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attack involving the use of the G-series Sarin nerve agent on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun in northwest Syria definitively qualifies in the literal fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:23.

However, this is just the beginning and worse is coming down the pike. This is the second note of note of critical importance. The likelihood of U.S. military action, airstrikes or cruise missile strikes, upon one or more Syrian government airfields is a very high probability. These U.S. attacks could occur this morning or in the next day or so. Sooner rather than later in order to convey the seriousness of how the Trump Administration views the situation.

What is unknown is how Russia will respond to U.S. attacks and their level of severity upon their patron Bashar al-Assad's military infrastructure. The cratering of airfield runways and destruction of rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters) is a minimum of what U.S. air and naval forces in the region are likely to hit. Naval forces may be a key as the second half of Jeremiah 49:23 indicates:

"Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet."

Notice the direct tie-in of this verse to what Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 17:12-13. For sure this is another indicator of far, far worse that is yet to come. Another unknown is that when the U.S. strikes Syria will Assad, at Iranian urging then strike out at Israel? Understand this: If Bashar al-Assad (or the IRGC/Hezbollah) were to order a weapons of mass destruction chemical attack upon Israel, then have no illusions that Israel will strike back with nuclear weaponry. And here we could be witness to the literal fulfillment of both Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophecies in real-time. 

What strikes most solidly about all this is that instead of referencing an entire chapter of the Lord's prophetic word through His prophets, it is now necessary to cite individual and pairs of verses as coming to fulfillment before our eyes.

Marana'tha

Global SITREP B7:14: Al Qaeda in Syria Suddenly an Israeli Strategic Concern

 Al Qaeda foot soldiers looting ammunition after

the capture of Syria's Taftanaz Air Base in January 2013

(photo credit: AP Photo)

26 January 2014: This SITREP is adjunct and supplemental to the information contained in Global SITREP B11-13: Psalm 83 and AQ in Iraq.  The sheer numbers of Sunni jihadist foot soldiers, their combat capabilities and the objectives of Al Qaeda commanded forces in Syria has become a major and sudden strategic concern for Israel, to the effect of compromising the neutrality of Israel in the Syrian civil war. This change of status was made clear in a briefing to the Associated Press by an anonymous "senior Israeli intelligence official" on Friday, 24 January. This briefing has been reported in both Israeli and British media in the past 24 hours.

The IDF intelligence official numbered the Al Qaeda jihadist forces in Syria at 30,000. This figure amounts to a real number increase of well over 25,000 combatants from previous Western intelligence estimates. The IDF intelligence official made no bones about what is already well known about the future objective of these Islamic jihadists: after the military defeat in Syria of Assad's forces, the IRGC and Hezbollah forces these jihadists will immediately embark upon a war with Israel. 

Recent rocket attacks from these same Sunni jihadists against Israel would suggest that their war aims are far more advanced than they are being given credit for. Question: What is the difference between AQ Sunni jihadists in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq? Answer: There is none. 

Therefore, I make the assessment that it is merely a matter of time before the chemical weapons used against Bashar al-Assad's forces on several occasions last year are fired against Israeli civilian targets in order to provoke a very serious and game-changing response from Israel. This, in all actuality, is Al Qaeda's ultimate strategic objective, and it was the unspoken benchmark basis for the IDF intelligence officer's briefing to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. 

Just a half year ago when Al Qaeda jihadists used its crude chemical weapons in Syria, like the example in the image above clearly shows, Bashar al-Assad took the blame for it in the UN and world media as accused by the Obama Administration in August 2013. The Obama Administration was threatening war against Bashar al-Assad, because, pursuant to their pro-rebel agenda, the Al Qaeda jihadists (i.e. the Syrian rebels) did not possess such chemical weapons. Hopefully, now we now better. I would guarantee that Israel does for sure. And what we have here is yet another potential spark for the fulfillment of Isaiah 17.

Addendum 31 January 2014:  The above image appeared in yesterday's edition of the Turkish Hurriet Daily News which published an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. This image was uploaded to an Al Qaeda website on 7 January 2014, and shows an Al Qaeda Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) convoy of at least sixteen new Toyota Hilux twin-cab pick-up trucks mustered for a photo-op in Anbar Province, Iraq, the scene of recent Al Qaeda combat victories in Falluja and Ramadi against the Iraqi Army. 

The Toyota Hilux (similar to the Toyota Tacoma sold in the US) vehicles are virtually indestructible, easily out-perform Humvees and other assorted light utility combat vehicles and are the overwhelming jihadist/insurgent favorite for rapid transit of their fighting forces for well over a decade now. This convoy, at least as much as can be seen in this image, is the equivalent of a 112-man high-mobility cavalry troop or infantry company. One vehicle appears to have a large caliber anti-aircraft cannon, possibly a ZU-23-2 "Sergei," mounted to its cargo bed.

This Hurriet Daily News reported that a column similar to this one approached the Çobanbey, Kilis, Turkey border post between Syria and Turkey and engaged a Turkish Army unit on Tuesday, 28 January. The Turkish unit is deployed at Çobanbey to defend the large rail yard located less than 100 feet from the actual border. The Al Qaeda forces initiated the attack but were repulsed according to Hurriet, and broke contact after losing three vehicles. This is the first instance of Al Qaeda (ISIL) engaging Turkish military forces from Syrian soil.

Al Qaeda has now engaged in significant combat with Iraqi, Syrian and Turkish forces.

Global SITREP A29-13: The Fate of Damascus and Syria Assured

15 September 2013: The image above is of the ruin of Duma, formerly a thriving suburb lying just 6 miles from the heart of Damascus, Syria. This image was taken by war correspondent Goran Tomasevic of Reuters seven months ago. It has gotten worse since then. There are many other neighborhoods completely within the city limits of Damascus that look worse than this. The cities of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and dozens upon dozens of others throughout Syria are worse than this. Thus, the literal text of Isaiah 17:1-3 is coming to fulfillment before our eyes. 

In the news today the so-called Kerry-Lavrov agreement all but guarantees that the larger regional war, which will involve Israel as made clear by Isaiah 17:9, will come to its fulfillment precisely as the prophecy declares it will. The fact is that the Kerry-Lavrov "agreement" is fatally flawed, first and foremost because it is an agreement by two men representing two opposed nations who have lied to each others faces before their shaking hands on something that is both unenforceable and unimplementable. 

Secondly, this agreement between Russian and American negotiators will not be implemented by Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist Syrian government because of al-Assad's added conditions that: 

1) Israel must dispose of its nuclear arsenal prior to Syria disposing of its chemical weapons.

2) America and its allies (including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) must halt all military assistance to rebel forces even while Russia continues arming al-Assad's own loyal military forces with more firepower than they have ever possessed in the past.

In simple parlance this entire "deal" is a non-starter from the get-go. The hand-shakers haven't stopped anything; they have enabled much, much worse to come. The "negotiation" has been a sham and a scam from the get-go, and has resulted in a recipe for chaotic regional warfare the likes of which this world has never seen before. It will consume tens of thousands of lives, many dozens of cities and villages as well as the complete destruction of Damascus and the Syrian nation as we have known it. The end-game of the fulfillment of Isaiah 17 stands before us, and that takes us one prophetic step closer to the coming of our Lord and His everlasting Kingdom. Marana tha!

Global SITREP A28-13: Syria-Hezbollah Crisis Deepens Exponentially

Syrian Jihadists and their Chemical Weapons

UPDATE 20 September 2013: Arutz Sheva/Israel Nationa News (INN) - "Assad Smuggling (Chemical) Weapons Through Tunnels to Hizbullah." The first two paragraphs of the INN report state: "A Saudi newspaper has reported the Syrian President has begun smuggling chemical weapons to Hizbullah using underground tunnels. A Saudi newspaper has claimed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is using tunnels to smuggle chemical weapons to Hizbullah. The report by the Al-Watan daily said the regime had made the move to avoid being spotted, moving the deadly weapons before the arrival of international inspectors."

16 September 2013: Saudi Arabian, Lebanese and Israeli newspapers are all reporting this morning that Syria has either transferred or is in the process of transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, to Russian ships in Syrian ports and back to Iraq under Iranian Quds force guard from whence they came prior to the 2003 start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Saudi Al-Watan newspaper reports that the shipment to Iraq is occurring with the full knowledge of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It is unknown at this time if these reports are part of a full-scale Sunni propaganda campaign against their Shi'a-Alawi enemies or if they are essentially factual. At a minimum, if the transfer of Syrian WMD to Hezbollah is factual then a red line set by Israel will have been crossed and a very significant military response from Israel will be forthcoming without further notice.

11 September 2013: Based upon new intelligence the crisis in Syria is in the process of deepening exponentially as you read this.  A just received report transmitted at 0100 this morning and which originated with a senior Lebanese military officer states unequivocally that Syria is actively in the process of transferring a significant amount of its chemical weapons arsenal to Hezbollah. The source reports these Syrian chemical warfare agents are doing directly into Hezbollah's Bekaa Valley storage bunkers. Expect an Israeli response at any moment.

Additionally, while we wait for the official UN report (which itself may well contain a certain amount of politicization) on the chemical attack in the Ghouta/Jobar suburb of Damascus on 21 August, intelligence on preliminary forensic evidence strongly indicates a terrorist home-brew of a chemical agent closely approximating Sarin was involved and that the specific formula for this agent was provided to Al Qaeda by North Korea in 2002. The official death toll from this event is no where near the numbers reported by the Obama Administration. As of 10 September the Doctors Without Borders organization continues to report a death toll of 355 individuals. The other physical evidence collected by Doctors Without Borders points directly to the blue-colored cylinder (see image above) seen in many images and videos taken at that time. A very detailed, 'must read' article by Dr. Yossef Bodansky was published on Monday, 9 September 2013 by the World Tribune.com website.

Global SITREP A22-13: The Syrian Situation

UPDATE 27 August 2013: Recent reports are suggesting that a 'last minute' diplomatic accord with assurances to avert strikes on Syria in response to the al-Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians last Wednesday have failed. While the reports are almost certainly accurate in stating that this last ditch effort failed, that is not what is critically important about the reports. What is critically important about them is that the attempted accords to forestall the strikes were not made directly with the al-Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, they were in fact face-to-face efforts with the the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran!  Bashar al-Assad is no longer the power to be reckoned with in Syria, but the Islamic Republic of Iran is the power to be reckoned with; it is the de facto government controlling what's left the Syrian regime and its military forces.

This confirms what many inside the Washington DC Beltway have known for some time now. It confirms what was related to them recently by Ahmed Jarba, the President of the opposition Syrian National Council. As Jarba informed Washington, "the real rulers of Syria are the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with the participation of Hezbollah fighters." Jarba went on to point out the true nature of the tactical situation is Syria is that the Al-Assad regime has in fact already collapsed and that what remains of it and at least half of its territory is under the full control of Iranian armed forces and Hezbollah. 

The implication of these new facts on the ground in Syria are nothing short of monumental when it comes to our understanding of Bible prophecy as long discussed on this blog and elsewhere regarding Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49 and the other related prophecies. This also points out the folly in the US and NATO allies planning to strike Syria for things which have been determined and executed by the apocalypse-minded Iranian regime 900 miles to the east. Consider this: the apocalyptic Persian Shi'a in Iran are the driving force behind what may well lead to the decimation of Arab Sunni Islam in the Levant of the eastern Mediterranean Sea caused by a WMD strike upon Israel.

26 August 2013: What if... What if the widely reported and anticipated Western-Sunni Arab military intervention in the Syrian civil war occurs within the next few days, is there Bible prophecy which predicts such an occurrence?  I believe there is.  Let's look at Jeremiah 49:23-27 (NKJV):

"Against Damascus.

“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.

Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.

Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?

Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts. 

 “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.""

Verse 23 opens with two cities in northern Syria, which I believe equate to Hama and Homs, hear bad news about Damascus which causes great fear and sorrow. Some great trouble comes into Syria from the West, from the Mediterranean Sea. It causes Damascus great fear, pain and anguish as a woman in the midst of childbirth. This seems to foretell exactly what real-world events are now pointing towards.

And what if this intervention is met with the promise of the Al-Assad regime to retaliate as noted specifically in the main part of the SITREP below. What if Israel and northwestern Jordan are the targets of Al-Assad's retaliation? (Links to a Times of Israel report) They may well be as the prophecy of Isaiah 17 indicates. If so, then we clearly have an Isaiah 17 fulfillment imminently before us, with the potential for the rest of the directly related prophecies to follow "like a flood." Jeremiah 49 is definitively among these prophecies.

 
Consider this update to be my most urgent "watchman on the wall" warning to date. It is an "Alert Condition Red." If the NATO-Sunni Arab alliance strikes on Syria do materialize, as now appears to be the case, then they will occur without UNSC sanctioning as was the case in Libya two years ago. Russia and China most certainly would veto any UN Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Syria, and therefore UNSC approval is likely not to be sought by the interventionist powers. This appears to be the same template of military action as found in the attempt to invade Israel prophesied in Ezekiel 38/39.

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25 August 2013: Last Wednesday one of the belligerents in the Syrian civil war unleashed a genuine chemical weapon, a neurotoxin, within the confines of the Damascus governorate, in a suburb known as Jobar. The neurotoxin may have been a Sarin-based weapon, or possibly Tabun or Soman. Based upon evidence I have seen in uploaded videos, I'm ninety-five percent sure the chemical weapon was one of these three. What I am one-hundred percent certain of is that no one knows which side in the war was responsible for the attack.

The fact of the matter here is that while all of the secular world powers and belligerents are pointing fingers at one another for this chemwar attack, the one group that is not doing so is led by Mego Terzian, the President of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). Mr. Terzian was recently quoted in global media saying:

"We are almost sure, even 100 per cent sure, that neurotoxic agents have been used, what type of agent we cannot confirm, who did that — rebels or government troops — we cannot confirm."

The problem here is that the powers that be external to Syria appear to be using this event pursuant to their agenda. For the U.S. and the Obama Administration this provides a perfect 'wag the dog' scenario to distract from the fully-primed Benghazi investigation and several other great scandals that are also approaching critical mass. For Syria it provides a credible deterrent against foreign intervention (air strikes or a no-fly zone) since the Al-Assad government in Damascus threatened in July 2012 to use its full and considerable chemical weapons arsenal (New York Times article, 23 July 2012) against those involved in any military intervention.

This is where we must pay very close attention to the Syrian threat. Would Syria retaliate against three U.S. Navy destroyers or the Western naval armada off its coast with non-precision chemical weapons? I think not. The most likely targets for Syria's chemical weapons would be in northwestern Jordan (i.e. "the cities of Aroer") where the Western-Sunni Arab land and air headquarters combat components are based, and Israel. Sound familiar? This should because it appears to be verbatim from the prophecy of Isaiah 17:1-2.

“Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid."

Would Israel sit idly by as Western forces and perhaps central Israel itself came under chemical assault by Bashar al-Assad's missile forces? I think not.Thus I believe we will witness the fulfillment of these prophetic verses.

Just beyond the Golan and southern Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese frontier IDF armored forces have been massed as seen in the image above.  In Jordan the coalition forces are limited to headquarters staff, some F-16s and light-footed special operations troops whose primary function is to serve as a tripwire against Syrian expansion of the ground war into Jordan. Therefore, Israel holds all the military cards should the prophetic Isaiah 17 scenario become the reality I believe it will become in the near term. And on that occasion we will need to keep Isaiah 17:12-13 in mind as one of the inevitable results:

"Woe to the multitude of many people
Who make a noise like the roar of the seas,
And to the rushing of nations
That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters;
But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind."

These verses could just as easily foretell the subsequent final battle of Psalm 83 as they could foretell what becomes, at least initially, of the foreign military interventionists. We'll have to keep close watch as this Syrian situation intensifies into the full-scale WMD warfare being foretold.