Rage against the Machine's prophecy? Testify!

I remember that some years ago, when I was in middle and high school, I used to be a fan of a (now extinct) band named Rage Against the Machine. That excellent band of the 1990's was formed by Zack de la Rocha (vocals), Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass), and Brad Wilk (drums).

I listened their music pretty often. I can barely remember another band whose lyrics would be as powerful and straight as the ones that Rage Against the Machine had for their songs, so it was not difficult to remember the whole lyrics for certain songs. One of the things that I remember most was a certain line in their song "Testify", contained in the album "The Battle of Los Angeles" (1999), in which Zack sang (or, more appropriately said, rapped) the following:

Mr. Anchor, assure me
that Baghdad is burning...

Although I understood that the song had something to do with oil, I never really understood what that specific line was talking about. Was that a referral to the Gulf war in 1991, or were they foreseeing the beginning of the war in Iraq some years after the release of "The Battle of Los Angeles"?

Whichever it is, "Testify" is still a fresh song to listen... and, if some of you are wondering whether this song speaks bad about Baghdad or has something against it, please be sure that it doesn't! It's worth to listen the song indeed!
By the way, by any chance anybody knows what happened with Zack de la Rocha? I haven't heard a lot about him since the band was disbanded.