Syria/Damascus in Prophecy:
And Here is why God's burden and judgement will fall on Damascus Syria:
Syria has been on the U.S. State Department's list of terror-sponsoring countries since 1979. The current leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, knowingly harbors and gives financial aid, political support, artillery and military training to terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hezbollah and other extremist groups whose mission is to destroy Israel and terrorize Israeli citizens.
With Syria's help, Hamas and Islamic Jihad carry out suicide bombings within Israel and fire Qassam rockets into Israel. Hezbollah launches Katyusha rockets in order to kill Israeli civilians. Syria gives Hezbollah "substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons and explosives, political, diplomatic and organizational aid."
How Syria Supports Terrorist Organizations (and how Damascus harbours and protects terrorist Groups)
Weapons provided by Iran to Hezbollah regularly pass through Syria with the Syrian government's knowledge. These are the same weapons that were used against Israeli citizens almost every day during the summer of 2006.
While Syria occupied Lebanon in the 1990s, it knowingly allowed Hezbollah to operate in Lebanon and permitted Hezbollah to continue attacking Israeli citizens. Although Syria has officially withdrawn from Lebanon, it still maintains intelligence operations there and continues to exert influence on Lebanese politics through its military and financial support of Hezbollah. Wanted Hezbollah terrorists are offered safe haven in Syria.
Syria's longtime proactive support for terrorist groups, some of them with extensive global reach, has significantly increased since September 11, 2001. The Syrian foreign ministry has made it clear that it has no intention of shutting down terrorist organizations operating within its borders, even after George W. Bush called for Syria to expel these terrorists and to close the training camps harboring them. American officials continually stress the importance of focusing attention on Syria due to its strong ties with terrorist organizations.
Syria has provided training, weapons, safe haven and logistical support to both leftist and Islamist Palestinian hard-liners. In the 1990s Hamas came to depend primarily on Syria for military and financial means as well as for its base of operations. Hamas' leader, Khaled Mashaal, currently lives in Syria. The headquarters of the far-left Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command is in Damascus.
The fundamentalist Palestinian Islamic Jihad is headquartered in Damascus and, in addition, its support comes directly from the Syrian government. Funds are transferred from Damascus to the personal bank accounts of individual Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists to aid them in purchasing arms and to pay for their terrorist activities. The leadership in Damascus gave approval to Islamic Jihad to reach an agreement with Fatah elements to carry out joint attacks; these attacks have been planned in Syria and carried out against Israel.
The flow of money from Damascus to Islamic Jihad in Jenin was so massive that the organization gave money to other terrorist groups as well.
Source: The Israƫl Project