90: Chapter 87 Encirclement and Reinforcements

At 10:00 AM, the commander of the Iraq reinforcement troops made a decision—abandon the vehicles, proceed on foot toward the Pump Station, and request air cover from the air force.

This decision saved their lives, but it also completely stripped them of their mobility. Traveling on foot in the desert, the fastest they could move was three to four kilometers per hour. From the ambush point to the Pump Station, the distance was over sixty kilometers, meaning it would take them at least fifteen hours to arrive.

During these fifteen hours, they would remain sitting ducks for the Iran Air Force—although the Iran Air Force was not particularly strong, a few F-4 Phantom jets were more than enough to deal with a group of infantry on foot without anti-aircraft weapons.

At 11:00 AM, Reza sent a telegram to Tehran, requesting ground support from the air force.

The reply from Tehran came quickly: "The air force has dispatched two F-4 squadrons, expected to arrive in one hour."

At 12:00 PM, four F-4 Phantom jets appeared over the ambush zone. They did not bomb—because the Iraq infantry on foot had dispersed too widely, limiting the effectiveness of the bombs—but instead carried out multiple strafing runs with their autocannons.

The effect of 20mm autocannon fire on human bodies needs no description.

The morale of the Iraq infantry completely collapsed after the strafing. The survivors no longer attempted to advance toward the Pump Station, instead fleeing in all directions and disappearing into the desert.

In less than five hours, the two brigades of the Iraq reinforcement troops had transformed from an organized combat force into a scattered, routed rabble.

At 2:00 PM, Hassan sent the full battle report: "Eleven armored vehicles and over twenty trucks destroyed, approximately three hundred Iraq soldiers killed or wounded, and one hundred and twenty captured. Our side suffered five dead and seventeen wounded."

After reading the battle report, Reza said to Karimi: "Tell Tehran that the two reinforcement brigades have been routed. Iraq no longer has any organized mobile units in the vicinity of the Pump Station."

"What about the two divisions Iraq transferred from the north?"

"They are still on the way," Reza said, "but their vanguard won't arrive until tonight at the earliest. And by tonight—they will find that the positions around the Pump Station are no longer a temporary stronghold, but a complete defensive system."

At 3:00 PM, Reza called everyone to the control room.

"From now on, we are entering the second phase," he said. "The first phase was capturing the Pump Station, and the second phase is holding it. The two Iraq divisions will arrive tonight at the earliest, or tomorrow morning at the latest. They have at least thirty thousand troops, and we have fewer than two thousand. The force ratio hasn't changed, but the situation has."

"What situation?" Rajai asked.

"The situation is that they don't know how many people we have," Reza said. "Karimi, from now on, you need to do one thing—create false intelligence on the Iraq communication channels. Tell them that Iran has deployed at least ten thousand troops around the Pump Station, including two Revolutionary Guard brigades and one armored regiment."

"Will they believe it?"

"Not necessarily entirely, but they will doubt. Doubt is enough. On the battlefield, doubt causes commanders to hesitate, hesitation causes troops to stall, and stalling gives us time."

At 5:00 PM, Karimi began his operation.

He inserted a forged conversation into the Iraq communication channels—two Iran officers discussing the deployment location of the "Second Armored Regiment" in Arabic. The conversation was short, less than thirty seconds, but contained a wealth of information: mentioning keywords such as "Second Armored Regiment," "T-72 Tank," and "Revolutionary Guard."

Iraq intelligence personnel intercepted this conversation and reported it to their command headquarters.

Upon seeing this intelligence, the commander of the Iraq southern defensive line made a decision that Reza had anticipated—suspend the advance and wait for reconnaissance aircraft to confirm Iran's troop deployment.

He dispatched two reconnaissance aircraft.

But the photos taken by the reconnaissance aircraft made the problem even more complicated.

The photos showed that there was indeed significant military activity around the Pump Station—vehicles moving, soldiers digging fortifications, and anti-aircraft guns rotating. However, it was impossible to tell from the air whether these activities belonged to a force of two thousand or ten thousand. In the photos, one truck and ten trucks looked about the same, and ten foxholes were not fundamentally different from one hundred foxholes.

The Iraq commander fell into a classic "intelligence dilemma"—insufficient information to make a decision, yet time waited for no one.

He chose the safest option: wait for the main force to fully arrive before launching an attack.

This decision pushed back the Iraq attack time to tomorrow morning.

And by tomorrow morning, Reza's reinforcements would arrive.

At 7:00 PM, Najjari sent word from the rear: "The first supply convoy has departed and is expected to arrive at the Pump Station early tomorrow morning. The vehicles are carrying one thousand Anti-tank mines, five hundred RPGs, one hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, and those six portable anti-aircraft missile prototypes from Fatima."

"What about personnel?" Reza asked.

"Rafsanjani is organizing the second batch of reinforcements, approximately three thousand troops, expected to arrive by noon tomorrow."

Three thousand troops.

Added to the existing two thousand, the total force would be five thousand. Although still far fewer than Iraq's thirty thousand, five thousand troops in a defensive operation, relying on solid fortifications and pre-set firing points, would be enough to withstand an attack several times their size—provided the command is sound.

At 9:00 PM, Reza stood on the rooftop of the Pump Station, looking at the distant night sky.

To the east, in the direction of Iran, faint vehicle lights could be seen—that was the supply convoy traveling through the night. To the west, in the direction of Iraq, there were more points of light in the darkness—that was the Iraq troops assembling.

The scales of war were tipping in a subtle way.

He took out that dark blue notebook and wrote a line on the newest page: "The enemy reinforcements have been routed. The northern enemy will arrive soon. Tomorrow, the final outcome will be decided."

He closed the notebook and walked back to the control room.

There would be no more air raids tonight. The Iraqis needed to conserve their strength in preparation for tomorrow's all-out attack.

And tomorrow, that would be the real test.