Car bombs sow Iraq mayhem

Marwa Sabah for the Agence France-Presse reports from Baghdad today that a series of five car bombs, three during prayers at Shiite mosques in Iraq's capital city, and other attacks across Iraq killed 58 people on Friday, after the government said al-Qaida was on the run.

The bombings came four days after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said al-Qaida in Iraq was "bleeding" and its leaders "falling" after an Iraqi-U.S. military operation on Sunday purportedly killed its top two leaders.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had said the "deaths are potentially devastating blows to al-Qaida in Iraq."

The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah foretold the violence that would beseige the "land of the Chaldeans" -- "I shall set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs... (Babylon's) high gates will be set on fire; so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire," (Jeremiah 50:32; 51:58).

While the bomb attacks are deadly and terrorizing, it will be the fires that completely demoralize the occupying reconstructionists. Because of the fire, they will say, "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven," (Jeremiah 51:9).

Sunnis outraged at claims of Iraqi Army shock and smother torture of detainees

AP writers Sinan Salaheddin and Qassim Abdul-Zahra report today that Iraqi officials are investigating claims that detainees, believed to be mostly Sunnis, were tortured at a makeshift prison in Baghdad, in a case that has outraged the country's Sunni minority.

An Iraqi who said he was in the prison described being beaten, tortured with electric shocks and smothered with a plastic bag.

Three army officers have been arrested in connection with the case.

Will this be the spark that ignites the fires?

U.S. troop drawdown on schedule, says top general

From an April 18, 2010 AP report: The planned withdrawal of nearly 45,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by end of August is on track in spite of a recent increase in attacks by militant forces, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Sunday.

Army Gen. Ray Odierno said that, unless there is a dramatic and unforeseen change in the security situation, the U.S. troop drawdown will go ahead and scheduled.

According to the prophecy of Jeremiah in chapters 50 through 51 in his book in the Hebrew bible, there will be a dramatic change in the security situation -- the burning of the cities.

And because of the fire, the nations will become exhausted, and will abandon the land of the Chaldeans, Babylon, not as a successful withdrawal plan, but out of frustration at the failure of reconstruction.

Now if the fires never come, and we withdraw according to the agreed upon timetable, it will have been proven that these events today in Iraq are NOT the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy. We shall see. I await the fires.

Al-Sadr supporters in Najaf burn effigies of Obama and Biden

From the New York Times online comes a visual diary of a demonstration by supporters of Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr held earlier this week in Najaf, Iraq, protesting the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The protest came on the seventh anniversary of the capture of Baghdad by American forces.

Protesters burned effigies of U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and stomped on the flags of the United States and its allies.

Here are photographs of the event by Joao Silva for The New York Times:

Anger and resentment toward America by majority Shiites, who suffered under severe oppression and persecution by dictator Saddam Hussein, may seem missplaced to Americans, but the removal of the heavy hand of Saddam has resulted in the widespread insurrection of the minority Sunni muslims in Iraq, who attack Shia civilian targets with car bombs.

There seems to be plenty of kindling to start the fires seen by Jeremiah the Hebrew prophet 2,600 years ago that consume the cities of Babylon and help bring about the utter desolation of the land of Chaldea.

60 Minutes video: Kurdistan, the other Iraq

From a August 5, 2007 60 Minutes report, a look at the nation to the north. Notice the comment at the 3:50 mark -- "The Kurds are acting as if the end of Iraq is near..." Isn't that exactly what prophet Jeremiah decreed? Little do they know, that end will come in part at their hands, if the prophecy is to come true here in our time.

Iraqi election winner Allawi urges the U.S. to suspend withdrawal plans in wake of continued violence

In a taped interview with Fox News reporter Dominic Di-Natale released Tuesday, former Iraqi prime minister and March 7th election winner Ayad Allawi warned the U.S. that pulling its troops out of Iraq before a new government could be formed would lead to increased violence that could spill over into the wider region.



Prophet Jeremiah predicted widespread violence in Iraq, taking the form of burning cities, a consequence of which will be the outright abandonment of the nation to her judgment. As reporter Di-Natale says, Allawi's plea will "fall on deaf ears."

Al-Maliki refuses to accept Allawi election win

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced in a nationally televised news conference that he would not accept the results of the March 7 election that gave challenger Ayad Allawi's political bloc 91 seats to his own bloc's 89 seats in Iraq's 325-seat parliament, according to an Associated Press report by Katarina Kratovac published Friday, March 26, 2010 on The Washington Times website.

On election day, Maliki had demanded that candidates accept the results of the national vote. Gesturing angrily Friday, he said he would challenge the vote count through what he described as legal process. Election officials had previously refused his call for a re-count when it appeared his lead was faltering during the ballot tabulations.

Since the results were made public, Baghdad has been wracked by bombings, first on Sunday and then again today, as the AP report states, "a harbinger of a spike in violence that many Iraqis fear could accompany lengthy negotiations on forming a coalition government."

An increase in attacks could complicate U.S. plans to reduce troop levels from 95,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. All U.S. forces are slated to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, according to the AP.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote that the occupying forces of the "nations" would abandon Babylon, because of the fires that consume the "cities, and all the environs." Will the political upheaval be the catalyst for the conflagration of the cities?

Deadly blasts rip through Baghdad

As reported by Sinan Salaheddin and Lara Jakes, Associated Press, at least five bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad Tuesday and another struck a market, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 160, authorities said. CNN reported seven separate explosions, following three on Sunday which killed at least 30 and targeted foreign embassies.

Iraqi officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents for the violence -- the latest sign the country's fragile security is dissolving in the chaos of the unresolved election. Attacks have claimed more than 100 lives since the March 7 elections.



Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said Iraq is in a "state of war" with terrorists, but U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip Frayne dismissed the bombings: "We're obviously concerned but we don't see... a sectarian war breaking out again." Army Lt. Col. Eric Bloom, a U.S. military spokesman, described the attacks as "random acts of violence."

Jeremiah the Hebrew prophet decreed that the cities of Babylon would be set on fire, and because of the fire the occupiers would abandon her to her judgment. When will the cities of Iraq burn?

Baghdad blasts put Iraq on high alert

Al Jazeera reports today that Iraq is on high alert after three co-ordinated suicide car bomb attacks in Baghdad left at least 30 people dead and hundreds wounded.



Iraq's foreign ministry said that the attackers were aimed at causing political turmoil following the March 7 parliamentary elections.

While not yet the burning of the cities prophet Jeremiah described in his prophecy of doom on Babylon, the bombings point to the volatility of the situation. What will light the fuse? Will tomorrow bring the burning of Babylon?