The ISIS Gambit

XII

“Stonewall, have you met Lieutenant Commander Johannes Edberg? He’s commanding your SEAL teams,” Yoni asked as Jackson walked into the kitchen.

“I have not, nice to meet you, Commander. Colonel Tom Jackson, 5^th Group, Special Forces,” Jackson said, shaking the commander’s hand.

“Likewise, Colonel. Ah, that’s where the ‘Stonewall’ comes from.”

“Nice to know someone around here knows some Civil War history.”

“Not to worry, Colonel. I’ve heard a little about you. Nice to be working with you.”

“So, have they told you about this little operation they have in store for us? Arielle’s made some allusions to it but no details as yet.”

“We received a few details a couple days ago. However, like our friends here, once the Russians based this network out of Latakia, what three years ago,” Edberg said looking at Yoni, “we’ve been playing with various plans on how to take it out with various commando raids. I came in late last night after sundown — sorry I slept through your arrival — Yoni and I’ve been comparing notes here for several hours and we have some similar ideas. As the ranking officer, you’ll be in overall command.”

“I’ll try and hold up Army’s end of this, Commander,” Jackson replied with a subtle jab at the Navy officer. “Well, let’s see what Yoni has in store for us. Yoni, can you get the team together?”

“They’re gathering now, Colonel. Everyone’s in the operations room in the basement.”

“Lead the way,” Jackson ordered as he had yet to receive a tour of this safe house.

“We have four air defense missile battery sites and the control tower — along with the rest of the base’s command and control facilities — that we need to take out,” Yoni began as he displayed a very detailed map of the airbase on the wall screen. “In addition, one of the battery sites is only a couple hundred yards from one of the barracks so we’ll need to be ready for any reinforcements that might try and join the fight. Each of the battery sites is composed of a mobile command and control truck, at least one — and possibly several different — radar units and the missiles along with their respective launchers. Fortunately for us, the Russians haven’t moved any of their equipment into any kind of bunker emplacements so taking them out will be much easier. We’ll be breaking up into four teams and each team will have as many javelins as they can carry. These will all be armed with a multipurpose warhead which we’ll drop on them from above. Stonewall, you’ll be in the tower so you’ll be able to see if we’ll need to follow up with a direct attack on any of the emplacements. We shouldn’t as all of the sites are in the open.”

“As to the location of each site: There’s one emplacement in the middle on the east side of the base and another at the extreme southern end of the base on the western side of the runway — these two are about 1,500 meters apart. Your SEALs will have these two sites. A combined Unit/SEAL team will take the control tower and the rest of the command and control facilities of the base. The remaining two sites are at the northern end of the base: one on the northeast side of the runway and the other on the northwest side. This one,” Yoni indicated, pointing at the photograph on the wall and referencing the northwest site, “could pose the most challenging as it is the largest emplacement as well as the one closest to all of the base facilities. If there’s going to be any counterattack, it’ll be here. Our guys from the Unit will take these two.”

“Chaos will be in overall command,” Yoni continued, “and we’ll be setting up the CP in the tower. The airport is closed at night so it shouldn’t be that difficult taking the tower. The nearest barracks are roughly four hundred meters away across relatively open ground. We can obviously expect a counter attack from this direction, though we should have every advantage. Plus, we’re not there to hold the building — we simply want to occupy this to give us a vantage point for the entire operation. Once the missile batteries have been destroyed, we’ll evacuate.”

“Commander Edberg, we anticipate you to establish your positions somewhere at the south end of the base. There’re several orchards along the main thoroughfare that run parallel to the base that provide excellent cover and lies adjacent to Highway 1 as well, providing an excellent means of egress for you.”

“I’ve seen this on our satellite images. That’s been our thinking, too.”

“So, just how do we get all of this equipment to our respective firing positions? The javelin only weighs about fifty pounds but we’re going to need quite a few of these,” Stonewall asked Yoni.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to give either of you a tour of this place yet,” Yoni said, addressing both Edberg and Stonewall, “but we’ve been building up our logistical effort here for some time. Out back in the storage shed, we’ve brought in enough UTV’s to handle the job for everything. These things are very similar to the ATVs your Delta boys used in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. These things have been specially modified to be as quiet as the grave. Each one will hold four SEALs and at least four javelins. Zivah and her team will be monitoring the Russian comms — as soon as they detect anything, they’ll immediately begin jamming the radio waves. They won’t start before as we don’t want to tip them off with the jamming.”

“We’ll have three vans along Highway 1. As you can see,” Zivah pointed out, “this highway runs adjacent to the airbase for its entire length. Once we begin jamming their frequency, they’re going to pick us up so you boys better be quick.”

“Not that it matters a whole lot, but what do the Russians have for a garrison here?” Stonewall asked.

“We don’t know for sure, though it’s estimated that they have the capacity for roughly one thousand troops covering all personnel from air traffic controllers and mechanics to base security. Of that, maybe half could serve as security personnel. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the drone attacks on this base. These were very simple, rudimentary drones that looked as though someone built these things in their garage. That was us. We obviously wanted to get a feel for what the Russians had here but also to foster a sense of over confidence on their part. If we could convince them that their greatest threat couldn’t even build a decent drone, they might not worry too much about a coordinated commando assault from either of us. We think it’s worked as they have not brought in any large number of troops for base security. That being said, I think we can plan on at least five hundred troops in total for security.”

“Well, like you said, we’re not here to hold the base so it really shouldn’t matter how many they have here,” Stonewall added.

“Exactly,” Yoni commented. “Finally, the ball drops at 0300. At 0330, our Air Force will be launching a major strike to completely destroy the base. Our job is to eliminate the air defense threat. Similarly, and at the same time, the US Navy will get in on the action and destroy the Russian port facilities at both Tartus and Latakia and sink anything flying a Russian flag.”

“Okay, your SEALs will begin arriving from the Jimmy Carter about midnight. Jonah and Ayal will be down at the beach watching for them. They’ll take turns with Levi bringing them up here. The entire force should be assembled by 0100. I know your guys have already done your own walk-thru’s on this,” Yoni said, addressing commander Edberg. “Any questions?”

“Major, we’ve been ordered by Moscow to beef up security around the base for the foreseeable future,” Khmeimim’s commanding officer advised his chief of security.

“Do we know what the threat is? All we’ve really seen so far have been those ridiculous drone attacks with the one exception being the suicidal rebel attack that managed to damage a couple planes, and that was more than a year ago,” the major asked his commanding officer.

“It would seem that there’s been some chatter amongst the Americans and the Israelis about some sort of raid in either Syria or Lebanon. Moscow hasn’t sent any additional troops, or even given us a clear idea of the target, so I’m not sure what to make of this.”

“They wouldn’t be crazy enough to hit us, would they?”

“Well, Major, the way things are right now in this crazy country, nothing’s going to surprise me. Hezbollah’s an obvious target but the Israelis have hit them pretty hard over the past two months. Maybe they think something might bleed over and we’d get dragged in. Who knows? For now, let’s double the guards at all of the gates and the operations buildings. The tower’s closed at night but put a couple guards around there, as well.”

“Will do, sir. At least Hezbollah doesn’t have anything near here for us to worry about.”

“Eric, Andrea, how soon will the two of you be ready to leave for Riyadh?” President Barre asked his secretaries of defense and state.

“Everything hits the fan at eight o’clock tonight. I would think that by ten it’ll all be over, at least from our standpoint, so we should have a pretty good idea where everything stands. Of course, the Russians will be absolutely livid but, if everything goes according to plan, we’ll catch them off guard and there’ll be relatively little they can do right away.”

“I’ve let our ambassador in Moscow know what’s going on as he’ll be called into the Kremlin at first light, if he hasn’t even been kicked out of the country by that time,” Secretary Johnson added. “If we leave by ten, then we should be over there sometime late morning or early afternoon.”

“Okay, that’ll be great. I want both of you over there doing a full court press on the Saudis. I want to hit the Russians with everything we can, both in the short term and in the long run. I want to show them what real power is all about.”

“Are you still planning on heading up to Boston?” Axelsson asked.

“Absolutely. We’ll be leaving within the hour. I should be up there a little before noon and then back here by six. I wanted to get up there on Monday but Tom talked with the local authorities and they weren’t ready for any kind of visit until today.”

“As of late yesterday afternoon, they were still pulling bodies out of the wreckage at Fenway, Mr. President,” Fleming added. “There’s still hope that we’ll find some survivors and we don’t want to be in the way.”

“No, I get that. The last thing I want to do is get in the way, especially of something like this. At the same time, I need to get up there, and it’s more than just being seen. For that matter, I really don’t care if I’m seen by the press or not but for the people of both Boston and New York — they just need to know that I was up there.”

“Imam, this is Dr. Mohammed Kayani.”

“Dr. Kayani, it is a pleasure to meet you. I understand you worked with Dr. Khan towards the end of his career.”

“Imam, the pleasure is all mine. I did. Dr. Khan was a great mentor for me. General Shishani has advised me of everything. I must say, your plans are ambitious. I am very pleased to be a part of the operation.”

“Has Mohammed shown you our facilities yet?”

“He has, and everything looks perfect. It looks like you have everything I’ll need.”

“Excellent. If you find that you need something else, let us know right away. When the time comes, I don’t want any delays with your work.”

“Understood. I look forward to helping you out any way that I can.”