93: Chapter 90 Siege

At 11:00 AM, Hassan set off with fifty pickup trucks.

At 12:00 PM, the Iraqis discovered Hassan's movements.

Their reaction was to dispatch four helicopters and two companies of infantry in an attempt to intercept him.

Hassan's convoy played a cat-and-mouse game with the Iraqis on the edge of the marshlands.

The pickup trucks were fast and had small profiles, making them as agile as fish in the desert.

The Iraqi helicopters tried to strafe them with machine guns, but the pickup convoy was too spread out; the helicopters could hit at most one vehicle per strafing run.

Over the next two hours, Hassan's convoy fought three small-scale skirmishes with the Iraqis.

On Hassan's side, they lost two pickup trucks and three men were killed in action; on the Iraqi side, they lost about twenty men, and one helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by an RPG.

At 3:00 PM, Hassan reported: "The reinforcements have been met and are moving toward the Pump Station."

At 4:30 PM, the first batch of reinforcements arrived at the Pump Station.

Two thousand men, carrying sufficient ammunition, food, and water.

Most importantly, they brought a new batch of weapons produced by Fatima: twenty sets of man-portable air-defense systems, one hundred Anti-tank mines, and three hundred RPGs.

In the control room, Reza met the commander of these reinforcements, a Revolutionary Guard colonel in his early thirties named Mohsen Rezai.

"Your Highness," Rezai saluted, "The 3rd Brigade of the Revolutionary Guard has been ordered to reinforce you. Two thousand three hundred men, all present."

"Two thousand three hundred? Wasn't it supposed to be two thousand?"

"Three hundred more were added when we set off. Mr. Rafsanjani said, 'Every extra man adds that much more strength.'"

Reza nodded, his impression of Rafsanjani improving slightly.

"Have your men fought in a war before?" Reza asked.

"Most have fought in small-scale border conflicts, but none have fought in one of this scale."

"Then from now on, they will operate alongside Hassan's men. Hassan's men have actual combat experience; let them lead your men. Within three days, your men will be up to speed."

At 6:00 PM, Reza convened a field meeting.

The attendees included Hassan, Karimi, Rajai, Rezai, and Najjari.

The core topic of the meeting was singular: how to break the Iraqi siege.

"We now have four thousand five hundred men," Reza said. "The Iraqi forces surrounding the Pump Station number about twenty-five to thirty thousand, which is six times our strength. However, their forces are dispersed in all directions around the encirclement, and their strength in any single direction does not exceed five thousand. In other words, on a local battlefield, we can concentrate our forces to form a local advantage."

"Do you mean to take the initiative and attack?" Rezai asked.

"Not an all-out offensive, but attacking a single point," Reza said. "We will break out from the north, the weakest part of the encirclement, and open up a land route to Iran. Once the route is opened, the supply lines will be cut from the Iraqis' hands, and their siege tactics will fail."

"When do we strike?"

"Tomorrow at dawn. Before the second batch of reinforcements arrives, we must first open the route."

At 8:00 PM, Karimi intercepted a piece of critical intelligence.

Iraq was bringing in a new batch of weapons from Baghdad, including Soviet-made AT-3 anti-tank missiles and ZSU-23-4 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. These weapons were expected to arrive at the front line within three days.

"AT-3s," Hassan said. "Those are good gear. They have a range of three kilometers and can pierce any armor."

"They are also bad news," Reza said. "If they are equipped with AT-3s, our pickup tactics will be in danger. The pickup trucks have armor that is too thin; a single AT-3 can blow an entire vehicle into fragments."

"Then what do we do?"

"Break the encirclement before those weapons arrive. As long as the route is opened, it doesn't matter how many AT-3s they have—we won't need to fight them inside the encirclement anymore."

At 10:00 PM, Reza deployed the specific plan for tomorrow's attack.

The breakthrough point in the north was chosen at the weakest section of the Iraqi encirclement—the position of an infantry company on the edge of the marshlands. This company had about one hundred and fifty men, was equipped primarily with light weapons, had no tanks, and only two BTR-60 armored vehicles.

The attacking force was divided into three prongs:

The northern prong, Rezai's 3rd Brigade of the Revolutionary Guard, was responsible for a frontal feint to attract the Iraqis' attention.

The eastern prong, Rajai's unit, was responsible for flanking from the side and cutting off the Iraqis' retreat.

The western prong, Hassan's rapid reaction force, was responsible for quickly passing through the gap once the Iraqi defensive line was torn open and establishing contact with the units from Iran.

Reza would personally command the entire operation.

At 11:00 PM, he stood outside the control room, looking up at the night sky.

The clouds were thick, and the stars were not visible.

Karimi walked up to him and handed him a telegram: "It's from Tehran. Rafsanjani asks if you need his help with anything."

Reza thought for a moment and said, "Help me reply with this—'The Pump Station is stabilized; the route will be opened tomorrow.'"

"Is that all?"

"That is all."

He took out that deep blue notebook and wrote a line on the newest page:

"The second night of the siege. Tomorrow, we break the siege."