MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

For peaceful purposes …

Hadith, Bukhari 2977, “I have been made victorious with terror” – The “Prophet” Of Islam, Mohammed

Hadith, Sahih Muslim 1:33a, “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and they establish [Islamic] prayer …”

Fox News – “Violence in Iraq soared in 2013 to levels not seen in years, U.N. officials reported this week, stoking concerns that the country is descending into the kind of sectarian bloodshed that gripped the country before the U.S. troop surge.

The United Nations said 7,818 civilians were killed in 2013, a return to 2008 levels. The startling figure follows warnings from lawmakers and analysts that the violence threatens to undo hard-fought gains by the United States.

‘The level of indiscriminate violence in Iraq is unacceptable,’ U.N. Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement, calling on the Iraqi government to curb ‘this infernal circle.’

U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011. In the years immediately before and after that withdrawal, the level of violence remained relatively steady — and by Iraq standards, relatively low. The troop surge and other factors were credited with curbing the bloodshed from its 2004-2007 highs.

But the 2013 death toll is roughly double what it had been in recent years.

A number of factors are at play, and some are urging the Obama administration to get more involved — though there is little appetite to send U.S. troops back into the country.

The violence in Iraq began to surge in April, after the Shiite-led government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp.

Iraq’s Al Qaeda branch has fed on Sunni discontent and on the civil war in neighboring Syria, in which mostly Sunni rebels fight a government whose base is a Shiite offshoot sect. It has targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with waves of coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.” Read more.

2013 Was The Bloodiest Year Yet For Syria With More Than 73,000 Deaths – “Yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , based in Britain, issued its data stating that in the past year , from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013 , there were more than 73 455 dead, including 22 436 civilians. The Observatory has also updated the figures on deaths throughout the war period : 130 thousand , mostly soldiers and rebel fighters on both sides. The group criticizes the international community because ‘it is not in taking serious action to stop the massacres that have been committed and continue to be committed.'” Read more.

Flashback: Report: Terrorism Hits Record High In 2012, Deaths Up 89% From Prior Year, 2013 Set To Hit New Record – “As terrorism increasingly becomes a tactic of warfare, the number of attacks and fatalities soared to a record high in 2012… More than 8,500 terrorist attacks killed nearly 15,500 people last year as violence tore through Africa, Asia and the Middle East… That’s a 69% rise in attacks and an 89% jump in fatalities from 2011… and most of the violence was committed in Muslim-majority countries… The previous record for attacks was set in 2011 with more than 5,000 incidents… This year is expected to outpace even 2012’s record high. There were 5,100 attacks in the first six months of 2013…” Read more.

Flashback: Global Islamism: Prospects For 2014 (And It Isn’t Looking Good) – “Thanks to the Obama administration’s uninformed and flimsy foreign policy decisions, the year 2013 has distinctively been a blessing for the independent Islamist parties and fundamentalist Islamic governments throughout the Middle East and the world. Although it is somewhat difficult to predict what will happen in 2014 regarding the Islamists movements and prominent challenges within that (along with Iran’s nuclear ambitions), several issues can be projected based on the trends and polices carried out in 2013. Firstly, the foreign and domestic policies carried out by the Obama administration have led to several key trends. In 2013, Islamists and fundamentalists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and other Islamists parties have gained an unprecedented level of power, organization, and coordination, particularly across the Middle East and Africa.” Read more.