War – Is it coming in the Ancient Territory of the Assyrian Empire
?
September 25, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Please take the time to read the DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report which follows this introduction.
Then read Prophecy Update Number 111E from 2003 which I have included from our Archives.
At the time the Prophets Isaiah and Micah wrote their Old Testament books, the Assyrian Empire was enclosed by a line from modern day Adama, Turkey to T’bilisi, Georgia to Baku, Azerbaijan, along the southern coastline of the Caspian Sea to Mashhad, Iran to Bosra, Kuwait to Tel Aviv, Israel to Adama, Turkey. I have always believed the antichrist would come from within this area and, as such, was called “The Assyrian” by Micah in Chapter 5. I have chosen Syria as the most likely place within the enclosed area that would be the zone of his first appearance, but realize he could come from anywhere inside it to fulfill the prophecy of Micah. (Reference Archive Whole Numbered Prophecy Updates 62 through 69)
Micah 5:4-7 – And HE shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall HE be great unto the ends of the earth. [5] And THIS MAN shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall HE deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
[7] And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
While I do not believe the war described in the DEBKAfile will break out before 2008, I admit it could, and I do expect it to begin before 2012 ends.
Begin DEBKAfile Military Report
Iran and Turkey Prepare for War in Iraqi
Kurdistan
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
September 24, 2006, 5:58 PM (GMT+02:00)
A new Middle East war is in the offing. DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources in Iraq and sources in Iran reveal that Turkish and Iranian air units as well
as armored, paratroop, special operations and artillery forces are poised for an imminent coordinated invasion of the northern Iraqi autonomous province of Kurdistan.
Our sources pinpoint the target of the combined Iranian-Turkish offensive as the Quandil Mountains (see picture), where some 5,000 Kurdish rebels from Turkey and Iran, members of the PKK and PJAK respectively, are holed up. Iranian and Turkish assault troops are already deployed 7-8 km deep inside Iraqi territory.
Turkey to the northwest and Iran to the east both have Kurdish minorities which have been radicalized by the emergence of Iraqi Kurdistan in the last three years. The three contiguous Kurdish regions form a strategic world hub.
A jittery Washington foresees a Kurdish-Iranian military thrust quickly flaring into a comprehensive conflict and igniting flames that would envelop the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan as well as southern Turkey and Armenia.
Tehran is quite capable of using the opening for its expeditionary force to grab extensive parts of Kurdistan and strike a strategic foothold in northern Iraq.
Informed US officials would not be surprised if Turkey took the chance of seizing northern Iraqi oil fields centered on the oil-rich town of Kirkuk, the source of 40 percent of Iraq’s oil output.
When he met US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in New York Thursday, Sept. 21, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said: “When we talk about Kirkuk, everybody supposes we want to bring the Kurdish-Turkish issue to the foreground. However, we instead see the uncertainty there as a general issue of Iraq. We are concerned that instability and turmoil in Kirkuk could cause more troubles in Iraq.”
Referring to the recently appointed special US coordinator Gen. Joseph Ralston, Gul expressed his hope that a resolution would be imminent.
The threat was implicit and impatient. Washington was given to infer that Ankara is on the point of deciding whether or not to capture Kirkuk, a step that would undermine a pivotal political and economic base of the Baghdad government and harm US interests in Iraq.
This conversation, which was not nearly as amicable as it looked from the press photos, was clouded by a disturbing incident: A semi-official American military publication recently ran a new map showing parts of Turkish and Armenian territory marked “Kurdistan.”
This map fueled suspicions in Ankara and the Armenian capital Yerevan that the US high military command was in on a plan for Iraqi Kurdish forces led by President Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani to help themselves to territory in Turkey and Armenia in a counter-attack to a potential Turkish-Iranian military move in Kurdistan.
This kind of mistrust has lent wings to Ankara’s resolve to go forward against Kurdistan – the sooner the better.
To cool tempers and restrain the Turks, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, stood up in Ankara on Sept 19 and promised: “Northern Iraq won’t serve as a PKK base in the future.” In a speech at a meeting entitled “Agenda 2006,” Wilson stated that the map published in an unofficial U.S. military magazine showing parts of Turkish and Armenian territory under the domination of a republic called “Kurdistan” doesn’t reflect the official policy of the US.
The ambassador added that the recently stepped-up PKK violent attacks in Turkey “would not be tolerated anymore.”
These words were hardly likely to allay Ankara’s fears, since the ambassador addressed the PKK problem in the future tense, while the Turkish government is troubled by the present.
The approaching conflict, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, has an Israeli dimension.
Since July, Turkish leaders have been impressing on the Bush administration that they have the right to attack Kurdish rebels who mount terrorist attacks in Turkey and take refuge across the border in Iraq’s Quandil Mountains – no less than the Israelis, who with US back ing struck back at the Hizballah
in Lebanon for its cross-border attacks into northern Israel.
Tehran is not bothering to justify its forthcoming operation in Kurdistan. DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran report that Iran’s rulers are determined to go in without further ado and crush the Kurdish insurgents carrying out hit-and-run attacks in Iran in recent months.
Vital American and Israeli regional security interests in the Middle East are affected by three additional aspects of the potential anti-Kurdish flare-up.
1. Washington is not convinced by Ankara’s protestations of the absence of Turkish-Iranian military complicity. Turkey and Iran happen to find themselves in the same boat at the same time as targets of terrorists, say the Turks, and both have no choice but to use force to stamp out the violence. But for the Americans, the timing could not be more unfortunate. A possible US (and Israeli) plan to attack Iran’s nuclear installations at this time would be seriously hampered by the closure of Turkish and Kurdish air space to American and Israeli warplanes heading for Iran.
The war plot thickened further this week.
Friday, Sept. 22, while Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah harangued a million Lebanese spectators in Beirut, Iran’s ambassador to Turkey, Firouz Dolatabadi, spoke in Ankara in ominous tones. He said: “Iran, Turkey and Iraq are key points in the world’s geopolitics. Whoever dominates this region can control the whole world.”
Regarding relations between Iran and Turkey, ambassador Dolatabadi said: “History has it that whenever Iran and the Ottoman Emperor had good relations, we would witness good developments in the region.”
Good for whom? asked worried officials in Washington.
2. An Iranian-Turkish victory in a Kurdish campaign would award Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps its second victory in less than two months. The RG officers who commanded Hizballah forces in the Lebanon war of July and August claim full credit for its gains. They thwarted a key objective of the Israeli assault which was to cut Iran’s assets down to size in Lebanon and the western Middle East at large, and have left Iran’s military grip on the region firmer than ever.
3. Israel is concerned lest military action against Turkish PKK rebels uproot its military and economic presence in Iraqi Kurdistan. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that since 2004 Israeli military instructors and intelligence officer have been helping the Kurds build up their peshmerga army and anti-terrorist forces.
Iran and Turkey are convinced that Israel also maintains in north Iraqi Kurdistan observation and early warning posts to forewarn the Jewish state of a coming Iranian attack. If this is so, the two invaders will make a point of destroying such posts. Israel would then forfeit a key intelligence facility against the Islamic Republic.
Regarding Israel’s oft-reported, never officially-admitted, connection with Kurdistan, the BBC’s Newsnight program of Sept 20 claimed to have obtained the first pictures of Kurdish soldiers trained by Israelis in N.
Iraq, as well as an interview with an unnamed former trainer.
DEBKAfile’s sources conjecture that the photos were leaked by two sources:
One, Turkish officials concerned to drum up a justifiable “context” for their coming offensive by smearing the Talabani-Barzani leadership as disloyal to Baghdad.
The Kurdish authorities have denied allowing any Israelis into northern Iraq. The purported Israeli trainer told the BBC interviewer that his team was told they would be disowned if discovered.
Two, Turkish or European elements who are anxious to abort an American or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear industry by exposing Kurdish installations that might serve to expand Israel’s strategic options against Iran. The BBC producers suggested that refueling stops at the Irbil (Hawler) airport in Kurdistan would help the Israel air force overcome the problem of distance to an air strike against Iran.
The British program quoted the trainer as describing the courses given to Kurdish airport security people and army as diverse special operations forces’ anti-terrorism tactics and weapons. DEBKAfile adds that before Abu Musab al Zarqawi was taken out by American forces, his men sought high and low for Israeli instructors to abduct as hostages, but never found them.
The Bush administration recently appointed former NATO commander Gen. Joseph Ralston as special US coordinator in Ankara for the PKK issue in the hope of de-escalating the crisis caused by PKK attacks and delaying Ankara’s war operation against Iraqi Kurdistan. In the second week of September, he held a round of conferences with Turkish political and military leaders. His essential argument was that military action is the last option. But he made little headway. Many Turkish officials found the Ralston initiative too late to hold back the inevitable clash for a number of reasons.
They believe the delay he urged would play into the hands of the Kurdish rebels and give them time to consolidate their preparations to fight off an offensive.
Turkish intelligence reports that Talabani and Barzani are less busy with Iraqi affairs than with transferring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets to the anti-Turkish PKK and the anti-Iranian PJAK in their hideouts.
Ankara is keen, furthermore, to get in its blow against Kurdistan before an American action against Iran. The Turks buy Russian and Iranian intelligence evaluations according which the US attack may take place at any time between the last week of September and the end of December, 2006. So they feel the ground is burning under their feet.
Iran, for its part, is waiting for Turkey to make the first move in Iraqi Kurdistan. Its troops will go into action only after the first Turkish soldier and tank are on the move.
End DEBKAfile Military Report
Begin Special Prophecy Update Number 111E, March 20, 2003
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 111E
March 20, 2003
Kurds in the Whey Making Cheese
In Prophecy Updates Numbers 62,63,64,65,66,67,68, and 69, I made my case to prove that the man we identify as the antichrist is the “Assyrian” of Micah and, as such, he will be an Assyrian. Since the Assyrian empire, at the time of Micah’s writings, stretched across all of what is known today as Syria, I have always said the Antichrist would come out of Syria. But at the same time I have always kept a close eye on Kurdistan, which was the original space occupied by Assyria before it began its great conquests. I have been acutely aware that the place of Assyria’s origin would make the “best fit” for the place of the Antichrist’s rise. I still keep a very close eye on developments in that area, and the post war selection of a ruler in the country of Kurdistan. The Turks, Allied forces, and Kurds are all going to be involved in this situation during,
and after, the conflict.
Most Kurds today are settled Muslim farmers. Kurds have struggled against various rulers for an independent Kurdistan ever since the fall of the Assyrian empire. The last struggle was against Iraqi troops in the 1970’s. With the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War (1991) the Kurds again took up arms against Iraqi authority. But lacking adequate military equipment, they were subdued, and then massacred by the Iraqi military. Fearing annihilation, they fled their homes for the borders of Turkey and Iran. This mass migration caused incredible suffering and thousands of deaths, and forced the U.S. to establish refugee camps in northern Iraq.
Saddam Hussein compared himself with the great Nebuchadnezzer of the Babylonian empire, and with Saladin the Kurdish warrior who fought against the Crusaders. Saladin united the Shiite and Sunnite Muslims in 1171 and thus became the Sultan of Egypt and Syria. In 1187 he led the capture of Jerusalem
from the Christian Crusaders. This is precisely what Saddam Hussein had wanted, and planned, to do. The interplay between Turkey, who hates the Kurds and does not want them to be an independent state, and the United States, will be very interesting to watch in the next government of Iraq. Saladin is the great hero of the Kurds. The home of the Kurdish Democratic Party is Sala-aha-din in Kurdistan.
I have always believed a lightning Jihad attack by 10 nations, made up primarily of Sunnite and Shiite Muslims, would end the false peace that eventually must come between Israel and the Palestinians. And I have also constantly maintained that the person leading them must be of an Assyrian background. That is why I will be watching developments in a post Saddam land division in northern Iraq, where Asshur, in Genesis 10:11, came up out of the land of Nimrod (Today’s Iraq), to establish what became known as Assyria, with its capital of Ninevah.
Genesis 10:11 – Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
Micah 5:5,6 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
For a full exposition of my claim that the Assyrian of Micah is without question the antichrist of the last days, please click on the prophecy archive arrow at the top of this Update, and then individually review the whole numbered Prophecy Updates 62 through 69.
Saladin the Kurd was able to unite the Sunnites and Shiites into a Holy War (Jihad) against the accursed Christian Crusaders, and eventually drive them out of Jerusalem. The cry of Osama Bin Laden & Saddam, along with the Muslim clerics and other Islamic leaders, has been one of comparing us with the crusaders, while crying out for a uniting of all its religious Islamic factions to join and defeat the crusader big devil (U.S.) by driving the little devil (Israel) out of Jerusalem. On the surface the post war Islamic nations may put forth a false face of gratitude for the end of the Saddam era, but the subsurface hate of the general Arabic public will only increase and, sooner or later, a man will arise who can unite them by that hate behind closed doors – to formulate a false peace plan of deceit that will lull Israel and the western world into a false sense of security. The Bible indicates that man will be “the Assyrian.” He will arise within the bounds of the land occupied by Assyria at the time of Micah’s writings. I am watching all the land occupied by Assyria at its maximum extension. This means the antichrist could arise in northern Iraq, extreme southeastern Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, or Kurdistan, which is in northern Iraq. My guess is Syria or Kurdistan. Leaders that arise in these countries in the post Saddam era will be worth watching. Watch for a leader who can both please, and appease, the Sunnites, Shiites, and Kurds.
The willful king of Daniel 11:36 is considered by many to be the person known as antichrist and, if so, the last phrase in verse 39 could prove to be very interesting in the post Saddam era.
Daniel 11:36 – And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Daniel 11:39 – Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, AND SHALL DIVIDE THE LAND FOR GAIN.
Saladin reigned as the Sultan from Syria to Egypt. It appears the man we call antichrist will do the same.
Daniel 11:42,43 – He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. [43] But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans
and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
Take a look at the whole Numbered Prophecy Updates 71 through 76 for a discussion of the King of the North’s empire.
End Special Prophecy Update Number 111E, March 20, 2003
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