Time October 23rd, 2024, 12:23 PM
Place Ba' qubah, Iraq
Thick black clouds scutted across the sky. The clouds were forecast to move farther in, bringing rain to nourish the crops in the fields. Ramaddan was about to end, the night finishing the the fasting required for the holiday.
Al-Kadir was happy. The town was empty, despite being mid-day. Odd, but not dangerously odd. It was the final transfer. The Iranians had given him hundreds of AK-47s, AK-74s, Stingers, and thousands of ammunition rounds. The Shi'a Freedom Militia had paid in American Dollars, Russian rubles, and hundreds of different currencies. The Iranians weren't that picky. Just as long as the Shi'a militias were willing to blow up some bridge, kill a couple politicians, and have his militia armed to the teeth. Everything was done. A couple Sunni diplomats were now dead, the bridge over the Tigris into Baghdad was done, and would be down for another week. Everything was completed.
Down the street, a truck rumbled into town. It was one of three, each a covered truck. A couple hundred dollars had provided the bribes for the border guards, and the trucks got into Iraq. Al-Kadir was sitting in his Chevy, a 2010 model, one of the last gasoline powered cars available. A black, four door car, it was dusty and really old, but could run on cheap, inter-state stuff. Oil.
Sitting on the roofs were snipers, militia-men, armed with their AK-47s. Stopping a block away, the Iranian drivers got out, dressed in the cloth head covers, loose fabric shirts and pants, with black bullet-proof vests.
Stepping out of his car, Al-Kadir nodded to his contacts. Pulling out a clip-pad, Kadir signed, and the Iranians pulled out their weapon crates. Popping the lids on the first crate, the gleaming black barrels and polished wooden stocks, banana clips, packed in tight, covered in woolen sheets.
After the transfer was complete, Al-Kadir nodded to his Iranian contacts, and turned around. Then, the first bullets flew.
Out of nowhere, three HUMVEES appeared at the opposite end of the street. The .50 caliber guns were rattling, spraying fire and lead along the street. Diving into a side alley, Al-Kadir spat out dust and grime. Turning around, the Iranians were dead, drapped over the crates. The trucks were pock marked by bullet holes. After the first few seconds of shock his militia replied. They opened up with their AK-47s, their RPG's, and actually hit one of the HUMVEEs. Shaking and rattling, the three HUMVEEs sped away, firing into the air.
Standing, Al-Kadir brushed himself off, and peeked around the corner. His Chevrolet was destroyed, as were the Iranian trucks. His contacts were all dead. Damned Sunni's they were responsible. Al-Kadir knew the Saudi's, the Syrians, Lebanese, they were funding these Sunni militia. Only they could have afforded HUMVEEs.
Pulling out his satellite phone, Al-Kadir called his cousin, Imam Ahmiri, the Muslim clerical leader in the mosque in Basrah. Prominent man. He could find out about the Sunni militia. Most of the Sunni money went through Kuwait or Basrah. Find a similar event, kill them, see how they like it...
In Iraq, the government still had control, a marginal amount, but they still exercised control. However, the Sunni's were growing in size. Sooner than later, Iraq would be almost fifty-fifty. Sunni-Shi'a. The Iranians couldn't stand that. Civil war was rippling on the horizon.
The Saudi's had lost a lot of their money in the oil market, the demand dropping after hybrids took off. Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, they were Western luxury and pleasure islands. Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, they all sought to bring a new market, in Africa, South America, Central Asia. The Middle East was prospering, but only slightly. Increasing economic pressure meant many were getting cramped, not earning enough for a regular way of life.
Then, it happened.
Iranians were shipping arms to Shi'a militias, and the Shi'a had almost massacred a small town outside of Baghdad. That was all it took. Before, the government had been able to control. With their power under threat, economic conditions falling, and the level of life decreasing, civil war broke. Imams called on their congegations...
"Fight the unbeliever. Those who threaten your children, your wife, you family, your clan! Fight them. Kill them all!" Moderate Imams were cast out, decried as effeminate. Civil war broke like thunder.
The role in this interactive is that of Al-Kadir, the Freedom Militia leader. His role is like that of Hamas, a small party in Iraq that controled Diyala and Wasit provinces seats. He could call up five thousand men to fight, and he had the weapondry to fight the Sunni militias.
His main base is in Ba'qubah, with a central bunker, and several others in the center of town, encircled by barbed wire blockades and militia checkpoints. A thousand men to guard the towns loyal to his cause, the true cause, even if Al-Kadir may not have believed all of it. He was religious, went to prayers, prayed when the call was broadcast, but he had a Western skepticism, stand-offish about the fight on religion.
Four thousand men to fight for the true Islamic religion, a thousand devoted to his towns and hamlets.
In his main bunker in Ba'qubah, Al-Kadir met with his advisors. The first was Ali-Bahadur, an Iranian colonel/advisor for his militia brigade. He looked like the 2005 Iranian prime minister, the political fighter for the Shi'a religion.
The second was Al-Kadir's cousin, Al-Hadr, a Shi'a captain of a small Shi'a militia in southern Iraq. He was starved for weapondry, and eagerly brought a hundred of his best marksmen to fight with Dragunov sniper rifles.
The last was Al-Jujar, the provinical governor, a loyal follower of the cause, if more politically minded than his two fellows.
Bahadur begins the meeting, with his announcement.
"The Iranian Liberation Army is being prepared as we speak. They will bring a brigade of armor, recon, and a division of assault troops to liberate the Shi'a Iraq. However, we need recon and scouting for the territory ahead of our army. We would need to have several routes prepared, cleared of mines, and airfields secured. Can you perform that, and if you do, then we can clear Iraq of the Sunni oppresors."
"No, we have soldiers, I say we strike fear into the hearts of the Sunni cities across the Tigris. We can use boats, bridges, and kill them all. Let the Sunni nation know what we mean to do if they don't give the government over to us! Mortar Baghdad, snipe officials, create fear and disorder, shake the government and their Sunni bribe masters, scare them to death."
Al-Jujar shook his head, pointing to the map.
"The Kurds are ready to leave Iraq, for their own nation. I can call a couple contacts in the north, and we can have a division of soldiers down here in half the time that the Iranians can produce them. They will fight to be free, even if it means killing Sunni men and women. We can guarantee their freedom from the Iraqis, and they can fight for us."
One decision please. It takes the fun out if you mix them up.
Let the judging begin.
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