349: Chapter 349 Swarm Slaughter at the Tunnel Entrance

Inside the communications dead zone, the ambush by Persia continued.

Beneath the abandoned pumping station in the Karun River Valley, the Revolutionary Guard had dug a tunnel network over fifteen meters deep.

Once the US Military tanks were paralyzed by the Swarm of drones, the camouflage panels at the tunnel exits were flipped open from the inside, and eight anti-tank missile teams suddenly appeared from different directions.

They were using Russian-made "Kornet" anti-tank missiles—the same model Sinwar used in Gaza—but they had undergone local improvements in Persia, equipped with thermal imaging sights and fiber-optic guidance systems, allowing them to fire covertly from the tunnel entrances.

The first "Kornet" fired from a half-destroyed cow shed, striking the side armor of A Company's "Black Horse Two" tank.

The missile's tandem warhead penetrated the side skirts and main armor, exploding inside the hull.

The second missile rose from a dried-up irrigation ditch and struck the turret ring of another tank.

Lieutenant Colonel Harrison watched helplessly as his armored battalion lost over a third of its strength in ten minutes.

The active protection system on his command vehicle, "Black Horse Six," had exhausted all its interceptors; after a "Kornet" struck the reactive armor module on the right side of the turret, it was blown away, and the gunner was stunned by the shockwave.

He grabbed the encrypted satellite communication terminal—a device that used extremely low-frequency electromagnetic waves to penetrate electronic interference to a certain extent—and sent the final clear battle report to the brigade headquarters:

"My battalion is under coordinated attack by enemy tunnel ambushes and a Swarm of drones in the Karun River Valley; losses are severe. At least five tanks destroyed, three immobilized. Enemy anti-tank missiles are firing from multiple underground exits, exact number unknown. Requesting immediate air support and medical evacuation. Repeat, requesting immediate support."

The reply arrived in a dozen seconds. Brigadier General Foster's voice sounded hoarse and urgent over the low-frequency communication:

"Black Horse Six, air support has been delayed. The 101st Division's helicopter and A-10 attack aircraft formations were ambushed by Persian anti-aircraft missiles and are adjusting their flight paths. You need to hold out for at least forty minutes—no, one hour. I repeat, hold out for one hour."

Lieutenant Colonel Harrison put down the terminal, looking at the burning tank wrecks in the distance and the crew members who were breaking formation.

He shouted a desperate phrase into the vehicle's radio that would later be repeatedly cited in congressional hearings:

"We're trapped here waiting to die. Who the fuck decided to invade Persia?"

On another battlefield about eighty kilometers northwest of Ahvaz, the 101st Airborne Assault Division faced a fate even more tragic than the armored units.

The 101st Division's 2nd Brigade, with twenty UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopters and eight CH-47 "Chinook" helicopters carrying about six hundred infantrymen, attempted to cross the upper Karun River Valley to execute a "leapfrog" seizure behind Ahvaz.

This was the largest helicopter air-assault operation by the US Military since the Normandy landings.

But as the fleet entered the valley, the Persian Revolutionary Guard had prepared a gift for them, learned from Houssa.

Not the DF-21D. Persia did not have that kind of missile.

But Houssa provided Persia with two hundred improved "Shahed" drones and the accompanying launch control stations through technology exchange—trading the right of passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The technical prototype of these drones came from the "Shahed-136" developed by Iran itself, but the version provided by Houssa had undergone significant improvements: a passive radar seeker was added to track the radar signals of helicopters and low-altitude aircraft; the fuel tank was expanded to extend the range to eight hundred kilometers; and the wingspan was reduced to make it harder for airborne early warning aircraft to detect.

As the 101st Division's helicopter fleet entered the valley, behind sand dunes forty kilometers away, twelve "Shahed" drone launch stations started up simultaneously. Each station carried twenty drones. A total of two hundred and forty.

The first wave of forty appeared directly in front of the fleet, forcing the "Black Hawks" and "Chinooks" to change formation and lower their flight altitude.

The second wave of sixty cut in from the flanks, targeting the escorting AH-64 "apache" attack helicopters.

The apache's radar warning receivers were activated by the passive radar seekers, and the pilots found themselves locked onto by dozens of low-speed but highly maneuverable targets simultaneously in the narrow river valley.

One apache was hit consecutively by two drones, its rotors snapped, and the helicopter flipped and crashed into the valley.

Another apache's engine intake sucked in drone debris, breaking the turbine blades and forcing an emergency landing.

The third wave of drones dived straight at the transport helicopter fleet.

A "Chinook" had its tail rotor precisely struck by a drone, the entire tail assembly was blown off, the helicopter lost balance, its rotors stirred up a cloud of desert dust, and then the fuselage flipped and slammed heavily into the ground.

More than thirty soldiers in the cabin died in the crash.

Another "Black Hawk" hit a ridge while evading drones and turned into a fireball.

"Retreat! All units retreat immediately!" the airborne assault commander shouted into the radio, his voice filled with despair.

But the Swarm of drones gave them no chance to retreat.

Two hundred and forty drones, with wave after wave of suicide strikes, nailed the 101st Division's 2nd Brigade airborne assault to the gravel and sand of the Karun River Valley.

Three hours later, when the surviving helicopters staggered back to the Kuwait border, they had already lost eleven helicopters—four "apaches," four "Black Hawks," and three "Chinooks"—with over one hundred and forty soldiers killed or wounded.

The US Military's ground advance in Persia came to a complete standstill on the eighth day of the war.

The 1st Cavalry Division's armored spearhead was broken in the Karun River Valley; the 101st Airborne Assault Division's "leapfrog" plan turned into wreckage in the valley; the 1st Marine Division's flanking attack also encountered slow progress in the marshes of southern Khuzestan Province, facing tunnel warfare and guerrilla harassment from the Persian Revolutionary Guard and Basij militia.

More lethally, Persia deployed more "regional electronic jamming systems" obtained from Houssa to the Khuzestan battlefield.

When US Military commanders tried to call in satellite-guided precision strikes, the GPS signal was jammed, and cruise missiles deviated from their targets by hundreds of meters.

When F-35s tried to lock onto moving targets using data links, the encrypted links were blocked, and the missiles could not receive mid-course update instructions.

When brigade command posts tried to establish contact with frontline battalions and companies, there was only mixed electromagnetic noise on the radio.

The US Military's stock of precision-guided munitions, which they relied upon, was consumed at an alarming rate, but the results were minimal.

Those command posts disguised as farmhouses, ammunition depots hidden beneath schools, rocket artillery batteries moving through tunnels at night—all of these were protected by Sinwar's "regional electronic jamming systems," turning the US Military's high-tech weapons into expensive blind shooters.

Persia was not confronting the US Military head-on.

They were using the same methods that the Gaza war had taught the whole world—tunnels, drone Swarms, electronic jamming, anti-tank ambushes, public opinion warfare—to wear down the US Military's manpower and will to fight.