Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Surge in violence raises fears of new war in Iraq

by Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News   WorldNews.NBCnews.com
June 21, 2013

A major uptick in sectarian violence which has killed about 2,000 people since April 1 has sparked fears that Iraq is heading for a full-scale civil war that could draw in powerful regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. [...]

United Nations envoy in Iraq, Martin Kobler... plead(ed) with Iraq's leaders to take urgent action: "Small children are burned alive in cars. Worshippers are cut down outside their own mosques. This is beyond unacceptable... Systemic violence is ready to explode at any moment..." [...]

According to the U.N., 1,045 people were killed in Iraq in May -- making it the deadliest month since the sectarian slaughter of 2006 and 2007 -- up from 712 in April. [...]



Will the cities go up in flames soon, in fulfillment of the fourth judgment on Babylon? Will this latest "uptick" in violence spark the fires?

Invasion, capture, punishment.  Next -- fire, abandonment, civil war, plundering, flood and finally, all-consuming drought. These are the nine judgments the prophet Jeremiah foresaw for the land of the Chaldeans, Babylon.

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