Iraq security forces burn Sunni villagers homes 'to the ground' after liberating town from Isis

THE INDEPENDENT (www.independent.co.uk) reported Wednesday, March 25, 2015 that Iraq's security forces "destroyed entire villages and displaced thousands of Sunni residents" after freeing Amerli in northern Iraq from Isis, according to claims of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a 31-page report, the human rights organization asserted government forces carried out a "campaign of destruction" after militants were driven out, likely as revenge for supporting Isis fighters or as "collective punishment" against Sunnis and other minorities.

According to The Independent, one witness said: "From what I saw, they used fire [to burn houses] but we also heard explosions."

Seven weeks after the siege had ended, representatives from Human Rights Watch conducted field visits to villages in October and found some homes were still burning and others were showing signs of arson.

One home is filmed by Human Rights Watch burning in October 2014

Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa Director, is quoted as saying, "Iraq clearly faces serious threats in its conflict with Isis, but the abuses committed by forces fighting Isis are so rampant and egregious that they are threatening Iraq long term. Iraqis are caught between the horrors Isis commits and abusive behaviour by militias, and ordinary Iraqis are paying the price."

READ MORE HERE...

Could the burning of these villages be the tinder that lights the cities of Iraq on fire? Will we see the fourth judgment soon?

Invasion, capture, punishment has occurred in sequence. Burning, abandonment, war with the Medes, plundering, flood and drought, leading to complete desolation, are prophesied by Jeremiah as judgment upon Babylon, the Land of the Chaldeans.

Are we living in the time of the judgment?  Will the cities of Iraq burn?

Is Babylon burning, Jeremiah?

30 countries pledge Iraq support

A September 15, 2014 article at BBC News online reports that thirty countries have pledged to help Iraq fight Islamic State militants "by all means necessary", including "appropriate military assistance."

French President Francois Hollande said the threat posed by IS militants required "a global response."

United States Secretary of State John Kerry, who attended the conference of foreign ministers, has been traveling the globe "drumming up support" for a plan of action unveiled by President Barack Obama.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah prophesied that one of the judgments upon the land of Babylon would be the abandonment of the land by those foreign occupiers who had invaded her and attempted to rebuild her after "breaking" her.  After the troop withdrawal of 2011, it seemed this part of the prophecy, and hence the entire prophecy, would be thwarted, since the abandonment was to be announced as a failure of reconstruction:

"We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her, and let us each return to his own country" (Jer 51:9).

But now the coalition of nations is once again engaging in the attempt to salvage Iraq, by fighting the IS insurgency. The prophecy is once again on track, with the burning of the cities the next judgment coming up in the sequence, and then the announced abandonment following that conflagration.

Invasion, capture and execution have occurred. Burning and abandonment up next.

Will the fires begin December 18, 2014?

Obama sending 350 more military personnel to Iraq

An article at cbsnews.com from  Sep 2, 2014, dateline  WASHINGTON, reports that U.S. president Barack Obama is sending 350 more military personnel to Iraq, presumably to help protect U.S. facilities and already deployed personnel in Baghdad, citing a White House release Tuesday night.

The White House claimed the additional deployment will "provide a more robust, sustainable security force for our personnel and facilities in Baghdad."

This brings the number of troops recently sent to Iraq to 820, in addition to the diplomatic security forces already in place, according to Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah's prophecy foresee's the occupying invaders abandoning the nation of the Chaldeans in frustration after having "broken" her, attempting to "heal" her, but then giving up and announcing a withdrawal, "each to his own country," following an outbreak of fires in the "cities" and all her "environs" which cause the nations to become "exhausted" with their reconstruction efforts, leaving the land of Babylon to her "judgment."

After the troop withdrawal of 2011, it seemed this part of the prophecy would no longer be possible, as the foreign presence of the invaders was only diplomatic, security and private contractors. But now the U.S. has returned troops to the land, in an attempt to keep the nation sovereign and secure, putting back into place a presence that can be withdrawn -- "forsake her, each to his own country" -- in fulfillment of the Jeremiah prophecy.

Will the fires break out, and the leaders of the foreign forces within Iraq announce they are abandoning her out of frustration at the inability to heal her? Will the next two judgments -- fire and abandonment -- be coming soon?

ISIS burn oil wells as Kurds attack

An August 28, 2014 article at Lebanon's dailystar.com Middle East news site relays an Agence France Presse report from Kirkuk that "retreating jihadists set three wells ablaze at a northern Iraq oil field Thursday as they battled Kurdish forces who launched a major attack nearby," citing officials.

Peshmerga fighters stand on a vehicle with a Kurdish flag as they guard Mosul Dam in northern Iraq August 21, 2014. (REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal)

U.S. airstrikes and international shipments of arms have "helped the Kurds claw back some ground" captured by a June offensive by radical Islamic jihadists in northern Iraq," according to the report.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah decreed that the cities of Iraq would be set on fire as one of nine judgments on the land of Babylon. Will the counter-offensive by Kurdish forces ignite the fires?

Militants kill at least 46 in Iraq mosque

An Associated Press article at FoxNews.com published August 22, 2014 from Baghdad reported that militants killed at least 46 people and wounded over 50 at a Sunni mosque in Imam Wais village in Diyala province, about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad on Friday.

The report claims a suicide bomber rushed into the mosque during weekly prayers and detonated his explosives before gunmen rushed in and began shooting worshippers.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah the prophet decreed that the cities of Babylon would be set on fire as one of the judgments of doom on the land. Will these latest attacks by the Islamic State jihadists light those fires?

Invasion, capture, execution. Those have happened in sequence. Burning and announced abandonment in failure at reconstruction comes next.

Are we on the verge of Babylon burning?

US hopeful as al-Maliki steps down

Iraq's new prime minister-designate vows to fight corruption, terrorism

In an article at FoxNews.com published today, August 15, 2014, Fox News reporters say there is "relief in Iraq and among Western leaders... as a new prime minister-designate vowed to unite the Iraqi people, and fight corruption and Sunni militants who have overrun large parts of the country."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would not seek a third term, making room for new leader Haider al-Abadi. The decision gives hope to U.S. officials that Iraq will now be able to move towards a more united front against Islamic State extremists, who have conquered about a quarter of the country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is quoted in the article as saying the move "sets the stage for a historic and peaceful transition of power in Iraq."

READ MORE HERE...

I am skeptical of the optimism expressed by Kerry.  So far, every major event that has occurred in Iraq since the original 1993 Gulf War invasion by U.S. forces has coincided with the sequential judgments on the "land of Babylon" decreed by the prophet Jeremiah in chapters 50 and 51 of his book in the Hebrew bible.

The judgments and decrees fulfilled thus far:

The judgments come when Israel has been "(brought) back to his pasture" (Jer 50:19)
      -  Israel became a nation once again in 1948 after almost 1,900 years of exile

The "report" of coming "violence" will come in one year, and then another report in another year, and then "violence will be in the land" (Jer 51:46)
      -  The first Gulf War did not result in invasion of Iraq itself, but then ten years later, the second Gulf War resulted in invasion of the land of Iraq itself

An "outcry is heard among the nations" at the shout "Babylon to be seized!" (Jer 50:46)
      -  The largest expression ever seen of mass anti-war protest against the announcement of the intent to invade Iraq breaks out world-wide

Invasion by "a great nation and many kings" (Jer 50:41)
      -  US-led invasion by the "Coalition of the Willing"

The "mighty men of Babylon" cease fighting and hide (Jer 51:30)
      -  Saddam's armies gave little resistance and many of them threw down their weapons and melted into the civilian population

The invaders are cruel and have no mercy (Jer 50:42)
      -  Abu Graib tortures

The king of Babylon has heard the report of them and distress grips him (Jer 50:43; 51:31)
      -  Saddam Hussein cried when he was told Baghdad was captured

Capture of the whole land (Jer 50:24; 51:41)
      - The invasion results in a complete capture of the whole nation, culminating in the capture of dictator Saddam Hussein

The "noise of battle in the land" and "great destruction" (Jer 50:22)
      -  Critics say the U.S.-led invasion "destroyed" Iraq

Punishment of the "Arrogant One" with no one to support him (Jer 50:32)
      -  The execution of the "arrogant" Saddam Hussein while witnesses deride and mock him

There is a sound of fugitives and refugees in the land (Jer 50:28)
      -  Mass exodus of refugees continuing even to this day

"I will dispatch foreigners to Babylon to devastate her land" (Jer 51:2)
      -  Islamic State militants are wrecking havoc and destruction all over Iraq

There is a call to God's "people" to come out of her (Jer 51:45)
      -  Jews have all left Iraq, and now Christians are fleeing Iraq in droves in the face of militant Islamic jihadist threats

JEREMIAH'S JUDGMENTS YET TO COME --

"I will set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs" (Jer 50:32; 51:58)
      -  The cities of Babylon will be set on fire

The occupiers abandon her after a failed attempt at reconstruction (Jer 51:8-9)
      -  With the U.S. back in Iraq with military advisers and troops to protect "U.S. personnel" and interests, the scenario exists for an announced abandonment of Iraq as a failed attempt to "heal her"

"A horde of great peoples from the land of the north [the Medes] draw up their battle lines against her and take her captive" (Jer 50:9; 51:11,14,27,28)
      -  The Kurds, modern-day Medes, are growing more powerful economically and militarily in a stunning transformation; they will invade and defeat Iraq

"A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!" (Jer 50:10,37)
      -  The nation from the north will plunder Babylon's "treasures"

A major flood event devastates the land (Jer 51:42)
       -  The dams on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers are potentially dangerous, both in potential collapse or as targets of sabotage

"A drought on her waters, and they are dried up!" (Jer 50:38; 51:36)
      -  After the flood event, the rivers will be dried up, and the land will be unable to sustain life

"And it will never again be inhabited from generation to generation" (Jer 50:39)
     -  Because of the wars, flood, and perpetual drought, no one shall be able to live there ever again

Complete desolation.  This is the judgment of the LORD in the land of Babylon according to Jeremiah the Hebrew prophet, at the time Israel is back in its promised land.

Is the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy coming true in our time?  Are we witnessing prophecy being fulfilled? Will the cities of the "land of the Chaldeans" soon be burning?

Is Babylon burning, Jeremiah?

Shock and terror: Islamic State boasts mass executions in Iraq [GRAPHIC]

rt.com  July 30, 2014

Screenshot from 36-minute IS video released for the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan 

As part of their psychological war to create a medieval-style caliphate, the Islamic State [IS] has released a new shocking video showing scenes of mass executions, warning Iraqi soldiers and others who dare to resist that they will be rounded up and killed.

The video shows IS fighters sweeping through a town, standing over dozens of terrified Iraqis, and leading soldiers to a pit in the desert and murdering them one by one.

READ MORE HERE...

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If the IS militants succeed in taking over Iraq from the Maliki government, the land of Babylon will be controlled by men who rule through terror, mayhem and murder, who hate the Zionist state of Israel with every fiber of their being.

The judgments of Jeremiah's prophecy leading to complete desolation of the land of the Chaldeans are brought upon Babylon as a vengeance for the sake of Israel.

"The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction. How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut off and broken! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!... The LORD has opened his armory and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation, for it is a work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans...

"Pile her up like heaps and utterly destroy her. Let nothing be left to her. Put all her young bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter! Woe be upon them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment... I will repay Babyon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion before your eyes, " (Jer 50:22-27; 51:24).

Invasion, capture, punishment, burning, abandonment, war with the 'Medes', plundering, flood, drought, eventual desolation, an uninhabited wilderness, an object of horror among the nations.

Invasion, capture and punishment are completed. When the cities of Iraq start burning, the rest of the judgments are fated to be completed in their order.

In God's eyes, those Chaldeans left in Iraq as the judgments flood over them, deserve what they get. As this video documents, who can argue?

A good time to start learning Kurdish

An article at the Israeli news site haaretz.com by Zvi Bar'el published Jul 6, 2014 suggests now might be "a good time to start learning Kurdish."

Bar'el describes how, while Iraq is battling Sunni militants, the Kurds of the northern region have been building huge shopping malls, high-rise residential buildings and airports, a "sign of the enormous prosperity that has been sweeping over the Kurdish district since 2003."

Bar'el also describes the tremendous oil wealth under Kurdish lands, and the agreements being fostered between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and its neighbors, such as Turkey and Israel. However, as Bar'el points out, such independent arrangements have "started a stormy political war with the Iraqi government."

READ MORE HERE...

KRG President Massoud Barzani, who rules Kurdish lands with his nephew Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, recently said that a referendum on independence for Kurdistan could occur within a matter of months, stating that, as Bar'el put it, "independence was a natural right of the Kurdish people."

Bar'el notes that Turkey, once vehemently opposed to Kurdish independence, may have gone through a "historic turnabout." Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for the ruling political party in Turkey, stated recently, "If Iraq is divided and it cannot be avoided, they [the Kurds] are our brothers."

In a startling revelation, Bar'el concludes his article by citing the position of the Syrian Kurds: "Salih Muslim Muhammad, head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party -- which controls Syria's Kurdish region -- [...] established an unofficial autonomous Kurdish region in Syria..."

While Bar'el doubts Muhammad "will want to unify with the Kurdish region in Iraq", the idea that this could even be a possibility has incredible prophetic implications, as Jeremiah's prophecy of doom on the "land of the Chaldeans" sees three "nations" of the "Medes" -- who are today the Kurds of Kurdistan -- rising together to battle the Chaldeans -- modern-day Iraqis.  While Barzani and his former rival Jalal Talabani, who represented the Iraqi and Iranian factions of the Kurds, had set aside their differences to form a coalition government under the unity Kurdistan flag in 2003, the third faction, the western Syrian/Turkish Kurds, the Median nation of "Ararat" mentioned in Jeremiah's prophecy, has yet to join their Kurdish brethren in a call for a unified independent nation.

Could this article by Bar'el be revealing the beginnings of the joining of the three nations of the Medes, the Ararat, Minni (Mannaeans) and Ashkenaz (Adiabenes), the Anatolian, Mesopotamian and Persian arms of the nations of the Kurds?

Is Jeremiah's prophecy of doom on Babylon coming true in our time?

If the cities if Iraq burn, and the reconstructionists abandon her in admitted failure and frustration, look for a coming war between whatever is left of Iraq and her neighbor to the north, the coalition nations of the Medes, the Kurds of Greater Kurdistan, the Median factions of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz -- Anatolian (Syrian/Turkish Kurds), Mesopotamian (Iraqi Kurds) and Persian (Iranian Kurds).

Baghdad's Sunni Muslims fear repeat of Iraq's darkest days

nbcnews.com
by Ghazi Balkiz

BAGHDAD - The bodies of the disappeared have started turning up, dumped in local squares. The death threats have, too - knocks on the door and warning to get out of town, or else.

With much of Iraq worried about the scourge of violent Sunni extremists, Sunnis in Baghdad are grappling with a deadly sense of deja vu. [...]

"I am living in a state of horror, I am worried all the time," one terrified Sunni told NBC News. "The situation has gone back to how it was in 2006 to 2007."

READ MORE HERE...

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"Living in a state of horror..."  Just as Jeremiah saw: 'How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!"

Will the Sunni/Shia strife result in the cities going up in flames? Just as Jeremiah predicted?

Isis destroys mosques

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east
5 July 2014

Images posted on social media appear to show the destruction of about a dozen places of worship across northern Iraq, in areas recently taken over by extremist militants.

Militants also destroyed the Saad bin Aqeel Husseiniya shrine in Tal Afar, approximately 50 km (35 miles) west of Mosul.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE...

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Will the destruction of these holy sites in Iraq by ISIS light the fires that will burn the cities of "Babylon" as prophesied by Jeremiah? Will the "high gates [city centers] be set on fire"? Is this the start of Judgment 4, the burning of the cities?

300 more U.S. troops headed to Iraq

CBS/AP June 30, 2014

WASHINGTON - The U.S. is sending another 300 troops to Iraq to beef up security at the U.S. Embassy and elsewhere in the Baghdad area to protect U.S. citizens and property, officials said Monday.

The new injection of manpower brings the total number of U.S. personnel sent to Iraq to deal with the recent crisis to approximately 800.

The State Department, meanwhile, announced that it was temporarily moving an unspecified "small number" of embassy staff in Baghdad to U.S. consulates in the northern city of Irbil and the southern city of Basra. This is in addition to some embassy staff who were moved out of Baghdad earlier this month.

READ MORE HERE...

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Just when we thought we were out, we're back in, although we never really left, as the embassy staff was huge, and American contractors are still there in large numbers, continuing the work of "reconstruction."

It had seemed like the fulfillment of the Jeremiah 50-51 prophecy of doom on Babylon would be derailed with the pull out of all troops, since the fifth judgment is the announced abandonment of the nation in admitted frustration and failure -- "We applied healing to Babylon, but she could not be healed. Forsake her, each to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven...", but with the return of troops, there will continue to be a comprehensive U.S. presence in Iraq for the time being, making the fulfillment of that judgment possible once again here in this current situation.

But first, the cities must burn, as judgment number four. Then the nations become "exhausted" because of the fires, and the resignation that there is no hope to "heal" Babylon.

We await the fires.

Kurds strengthen their positions as ISIS advances on Baghdad

theguardian.com  Thursday 26 June 2014
Martin Chulov in Baghdad, and Fazel Hawramy in Irbil

As Iraq's government teeters before Isis insurgents, the Kurds now control the oil hub of Kirkuk – and have national ambitions

Tensions are high in Kirkuk after control of the historic Iraqi city was taken over by the Kurds after the Iraqi army abandoned its positions. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Iraqis in Baghdad and the country's south are already calling the events of the past two weeks "the catastrophe". Not so inhabitants of the would-be Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, where joy is unrestrained and a long-held sense of destiny is ever closer to being realised.

As the central government teeters under the insurgent onslaught, the fate of Irbil appears more assured than ever. Kurdish politicians, in the past not shy to criticise Arab Iraqi leaders, but coy about their national ambitions, are now openly touting "a new reality".

To Kurdish officials and locals alike, a tectonic shift in the balance of power between Iraq's two power bases, and peoples, has taken place. And Kirkuk, the bitterly contested oil hub, is at the epicentre.

READ MORE HERE...

Safeen Dizayee, Kurdish regional government (KRG) spokesman, was at pains on Wednesday to highlight the region's resources. "In the governorates under KRG administration, vast quantities of natural resources have been discovered over the last few years – estimates point to more than 45bn barrels of oil and significant quantities of natural gas.

The Kurdistan region has already landed on the global energy map. Regarding the so-called disputed territories, Peshmerga forces have entered these areas after the Iraqi army abandoned their positions. The KRG had and still has an obligation to protect civilians in these areas and to ensure that army bases, cities, and land areas do not fall into the hands of terrorists.

Aref Maroof, 52, a Kirkuk school inspector, said: "I think 85-90% of Kurds want independence. Kurdistan has two options; one is to declare independence without 'separated territories' [disputed territories] in which case it will fail, or to declare independence by including the 'separated territories' in which case the Kurds will face a war with [Nouri al-]Maliki.

"It is in the interest of Kurds (to do so) if the central government and its army is weak. (But) If the KRG assists Iraq ... to rebuild their army, it is like committing suicide."

In Baghdad, a sense of gloom pervades many in government who see little chance of shifting the Kurds from Kirkuk, or even defending their interests while an insurgency and political crisis rages.

"They are getting what they want," said one minister. "While Baghdad burns, and while we all sit back and watch the fire."

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Jeremiah predicted the cities of Babylon would burn, the reconstructionists would abandon the land, and then war would break out between the Chaldeans -- the Arab Iraqis -- and the Medes -- the modern-day Kurds. "While Baghdad burns." That may happen most literally. Once it does, the One who has tried to "heal" Babylon will announce he is abandoning her, leaving her to her judgment. Then comes the war, defeat and plunder at the hands of the "kings of the Medes" -- the Kurds. Then a catastrophic flood, drought, and eventual "perpetual desolation."

It is a judgment from God. Flee from the midst of Babylon, so as to escape the coming calamity.

US committed to helping Iraq

In a www.cnn.com  Mon June 23, 2014 article by Chelsea J. Carter, Hamdi Alkhshali and Susanna Capelouto, CNN, from Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledge to Iraqi leaders American assistance in fighting militant attacks would be "intense (and) sustained."

Kerry said that President Barack Obama has prepared "a range of options for Iraq" but is not planning to send in additional troops, weapons or ammunition. Obama said if Iraqis cannot come together to answer the militant threat, "there's not going to be a military solution to this problem. There's no amount of American firepower that's going to be able to hold the country together, and I've made that very clear to (Iraqi Prime Minister) Maliki and all the other leadership inside of Iraq."

Over the weekend, the CNN article reports, ISIS militants advanced toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and taken the Tal Afar airbase.

Iraqi troops are preparing to counter the move and recapture the facility and the city of Tal Afar.

READ MORE HERE...

Will the cities burn?

Jeremiah pronounced nine judgments upon the land of Babylon, ultimately resulting in complete desolation: "'Thou, O LORD, hast promised concerning this place to cut it off so that there will  be nothing dwelling in it,... but it will be a perpetual desolation.'"

The nine judgments begin with "a great nation [The United States of America] with many kings [The Coalition of the Willing] (being) aroused from the remote parts of the earth. They seize their (weapons); they are cruel and have no mercy [Abu Ghraib tortures]... (They are) marshalled like a man for the battle against you, O (future) daughter of Babylon [Iraq].

"The king of Babylon [Saddam Hussein] has heard the report about them, and his hands hang limp; distress has gripped him, agony like a woman in childbirth. [Samira Shahbandar, Saddam's second wife, said that as the Americans surged into the centre of the capital, Hussein crumbled: "He came to me very depressed and sad. He took me to the next room and cried. He knew he had been betrayed." The Sunday Times Dec 15, 2003]

"Thus says the LORD:... 'I shall dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may... devastate her land... Devote all her army to destruction. And they will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and pierced through in their streets.'"

The invasion will result in its capture, the second judgment: "Declare and proclaim among the nations...'Babylon has been captured'...  'I set a snare for you, and you were also caught, O Babylon, while you yourself were not aware; you have been found and also seized because you have engaged in conflict with the LORD.'"

Despite what Samira said about her husband -- "If I know my husband, he will not be captured," -- the culmination of this second judgment and the end to all resistance was in fact the capture of the ruler, Saddam Hussein himself, who was hiding in a rat hole in the desert. "In the last analysis, he seemed not terribly brave," quipped US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The third judgment was the execution of the Arrogant One: "I am against you, O arrogant one... For your day has come when I shall punish you. And the arrogant one will stumble and fall [through the trap door of the gallows] with no one to raise him up..." [Saddam's corpse was taunted by those in attendance.]

The hebrew conjunction "and" links the execution to the next judgment: "The arrogant one will... fall with no one to raise him up. And I shall set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs." The judgment of fire is repeated: "And her high gates [city centers] will be set on fire; so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire."

The exhaustion of the nations because of the fires leads to the fifth judgment: abandonment -- "Bring balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. '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 and towers to the very skies.'"

Will the cities of Iraq burn? Is the ISIS militant revolution going to burst into literal flames? Will this be the fulfillment of the fourth judgment?

Is Iraq the Babylon of Jeremiah chapters 50 - 51?

Kurds: Iraq no longer our neighbor

from news.vice.com June 17, 2014

In an interview with VICE News, Falah Mustafa, the head of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Regional Government, expressed skepticism that Iraq would ever be whole again. "Iraq is not our neighbor," he said. "ISIS is now our neighbor."

Kurdish forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk days ago after government troops abandoned their positions. Mustafa said that it was unlikely that the KRG would again surrender the city, as it had in 2003.

He also dismissed rumors that the KRG was negotiating with the Iraqi government to deploy peshmerga forces further into disputed territories in exchange for increased oil revenue. "We cannot be blackmailed," he said, adding that the KRG's actions had abided by the constitution.

Mustafa added that there was no longer any trust in the Maliki government, and called its refusal to provide the KRG with budgetary funds for the past six months an act of "economic warfare."

READ MORE HERE...

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The Jeremiah prophecy identifies a nation to the north of the land of Babylon, made of of three factions of the "Medes", the modern-day Kurds, who are drawn in to a battle with the Chaldeans, defeat and then plunder them. While once unthinkable that the Kurds could be powerful enough to defeat the U.S.-trained and equipped Iraqi army, today's news reports announce the growing power and consolidation of the Kurds and the shrinking power, division and strife of the Chaldeans, as they battle each other for political control of the land of Babylon.

ISIS advances on Baquba as Kurds fight to reclaim Saadiya

By Laura Smith-Spark, Nic Robertson and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN

updated 1:06 PM EDT, Tue June 17, 2014

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- As Islamic militants continue their murderous advance across Iraq, they have a new target in their sights: the city of Baquba, less than 40 miles north of Baghdad.

Gun battles erupted in the city, only a 45-minute drive from the capital, on Tuesday as fighters and Iraqi government forces clashed.

Civilians are fleeing violence there and elsewhere in Iraq even as the United States bolsters its manpower in the region while it mulls what action to take.

READ MORE HERE...

Kurdish security sources also reported fighting around Saadiya, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) north of Baghdad, as Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, seek to retake control from ISIS militants there. The two sides are also battling for control of Bashir village, southwest of Kirkuk city, as terrified civilians flee shelling by ISIS.

"He who controls Kirkuk, controls Iraq"

Tanya Goudsouzian writes for www.aljazeera.com June 16, 2014 on the recent takeover of Kirkuk by the Kurdistan peshmerga security forces and its affect on Turkey following the gains of the ISIS militants and the abandonment of multiple towns by the Iraqi military.

Goudsouzian cites an old Iraqi saying, "He who controls Kirkuk, controls Iraq", and notes that the "word on the Kurdish street is this may be the opportune moment to either annex the city to the (Kurdistan Regional Government), or more controversially, make a unilateral declaration of independence."

Goudsouzian quotes Ihsan Yilmaz, a Turkish political analyst: "In the past, Turkey did not want Kurds to have Kirkuk as they did not want them to grow richer and more powerful... But the AKP - with its neo-Ottoman vision - has persuaded the Kemalist establishment that Turkey must be friendly with Iraqi Kurdistan..."

Joseph A. Kechichian, a senior fellow at the Riyadh-based King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, is quoted by Goudsouzian as saying, "Ultimately,... Ankara cannot overlook the rise of genuine Kurdish power next door, and must come to terms with the irredentist claims made by Kurds..."

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah prophesied that a nation north of the land of Babylon would be great, and would defeat and plunder Chaldea. That nation would be led by the kings of the Medes, who today are the Kurds. Until recently, it seemed preposterous that the Kurds could be considered "powerful", let alone even have a country of their own, yet here they are, on the verge of declaring their independence, and being described by analysts as having "genuine... power", and growing "richer" and more "powerful" by the hour.

Militants carry out mass executions

excerpts from www.foxnews.com, June 16, 2014, Associated Press contribution

Photos posted on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) Twitter account claimed to show Sunni militants carrying out a mass execution of Iraqi Shia air force recruits in Tikrit. The images show recruits being loaded onto flatbed trucks and being forced to lie down in a ditch with their hands tied behind them before they were shot.

Captions accompanying the photos boasted that as many as 1,700 recruits had been executed in this way.

Iraq's chief military spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassim al-Moussawi, told Sky News that he believed the photographs were authentic.

 Meanwhile, Sunni militants captured Tal Afar, approximately 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, before dawn on Monday.

"Residents are gripped by fear and most of them have already left the town to areas held by Kurdish security forces," said Tal Afar resident Hadeer al-Abadi, as he prepared to leave with his family.

READ MORE HERE...

Iranian RG forces help al-Maliki retake control of Tikrit

The Wall Street Journal
by FARNAZ FASSIHI  June 12, 2014

BEIRUT, Lebanon—Iran deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight in Iraq, helping government troops there wrest back control of most of the city of Tikrit from militants, Iranian security sources said.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, the overseas branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that has long operated in Iraq, came to the aid of the besieged, Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they said.

Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces retook control of 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.

They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot. The Sunni militant group's lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

READ MORE HERE...

The beginning of the end of Iraq?

One of my favorite world affairs columnists, Michael J. Totten, provides an insightful commentary today on the ISIS militant surge towards Baghdad at worldaffairsjournal.org, titled "The Beginning of the End of Iraq?"

Totten began his piece with an update: "Al Qaeda has taken the Iraqi city of Tikrit and the Kurdish Peshmerga has taken the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Iraq's army fled both and hardly fired a shot."

What he wrote next stopped me short: "God only knows what happens next".

Yeah, that's what I've been saying, since 2006. God not only knows, but told Jeremiah what was going to happen next.

Totten continues, clearly in tune with what is going to happen next: "In the future we might see the events of the last few days as the beginning of the end of Iraq as a state".

Actually, the invasion of 2003 (Judgment 1) was the 'beginning' of the end, with Saddam's capture (Judgment 2) and execution (Judgment 3) the next sequential events in the prophecy of doom on the land of Babylon shown to Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago.

Totten makes one prophetic statement after another: "But we are not going to save Iraq".

Oh so right. Judgment 4 is the cities burning, with Judgment 5 the complete abandonment of that land by the reconstructionists (Jer 51:9 -- "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...").

I like how Totten writes. He concludes: "This is the time of festering."

That is one way of putting it.

READ MORE OF TOTTEN HERE...