Prophet: Doomsday war to start next week

ABILENE, Texas, June 6 (UPI) -- A self-styled prophet from central Texas is giving it another shot by pegging Thursday as the start of a world-ending nuclear war.

"It could be turned loose before then," Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins told ABC's "20/20" for a report to be broadcast Friday night. "You are going to see this very soon, really soon."

Hawkins made a similar prediction in 2006 that, while obviously in error, was frightening enough that hundreds of his followers in Kenya took to their cellars.

Hawkins' latest prediction is that the war will begin somewhere in the vicinity of the Euphrates River, which runs from Turkey through Syria and Iraq and into the Persian Gulf.

ABC said some of Hawkins' followers have grown leery of the Abilene prophet, not so much because of his prognosticating but because he urges his followers to stock up on survival rations produced by a company that he controls.