Chapter 1790 - 1372: Titrick's All-Out Offensive Begins

Forty hours passed quickly.

Countdown: 00:00:00

In the command center, as the red numbers on the electronic countdown board hit zero, the world fell into an eerie silence.

Song Heping stood at the central command platform, his right hand on the encryption communicator's transmit button, while the second hand on the military watch on his left wrist pointed exactly to the scheduled time.

"Operation Thunder Sweep, commence."

His voice was calm.

The general offensive order was immediately transmitted via military satellite channels to every command division, every combat vehicle, and every infantry platoon of the assault units.

East line, 12 kilometers east of Tikrit.

Samir stood next to the command vehicle, gazing at the distant sky.

The sky at 6 a.m. was still a dark blue, but the eastern horizon had begun to turn white.

He picked up the field binoculars, aiming them at Tikrit twelve kilometers away.

The city's skyline was like a row of jagged teeth in the dawn.

"Artillery group." He issued the order into the throat microphone: "Plan One, all charges, rapid fire."

Three seconds later, the world was torn apart.

The first to fire were the 24 2S3 "Akatsiya" 152mm self-propelled howitzers of the east line artillery group.

The muzzle flash emitted by the recoil brake was particularly dazzling in the pre-dawn darkness, and the orange-red light instantaneously illuminated the entire artillery position.

The thunderous sound of the shells leaving the barrels was like a giant hammering the earth, and the shockwave made the command vehicle under Samir's feet tremble.

Then came the salvo from the 24 D-30 towed howitzers on the west position. These guns had a faster firing rate, and the tracks drawn by the shells in the air resembled the weave of the Grim Reaper's threads, densely covering the East Tikrit District.

The rhythm of the bombardment was precisely calculated.

The first round was smoke bombs and flares, marking targets for UAVs and observation aircraft; the second round was high-explosive shells, destroying surface fortifications and exposed defense points; the third round was incendiary shells, covering the interior of buildings.

Samir looked at his watch: 6:01 a.m.

The first round of shells landed.

At the edge of the East Tikrit District, a series of orange-red fireballs erupted from the ground, as if the hinges of the Gate of Hell were turning.

The explosion's light instantly illuminated the entire block, and buildings collapsed as if made of paper under the shockwave.

Smoke and dust surged upwards, forming a wall of gray-black smoke hundreds of meters high.

"The UAV footage is back."

The staff officer inside the vehicle shouted.

Samir jumped back into the vehicle.

On the screen, real-time images transmitted through the data link from the US Army's MQ-9 "Reaper" UAV appeared.

The sandbag fortifications on the outskirts of the East District were blasted into disarray, and several concrete machine gun bunkers were hit directly by 152mm shells, their canopies completely blown off.

On a street, five trucks modified by the 1515 Armed for suicide bombing were burning, with one of the fuel tanks exploding, sending a pillar of fire thirty meters into the sky.

"Target designation: East District power plant, water plant, communications tower." Samir ordered, "Second round, high-explosive fragmentation shells, area barrage."

"Yes!"

6:03 a.m., the second round of shelling began.

This time it was rocket artillery.

Eighteen BM-21 "Grad" 122mm multiple launch rocket systems fired simultaneously, each vehicle with forty launch tubes emptied within fifteen seconds.

Seven hundred and twenty rockets soared with a trail of orange-red flames, weaving a web of death in the sky.

The rocket trajectories were straighter than those of the howitzers, and the landing sounds were more densely piercing.

It was a steel rain.

Each rocket was filled with hundreds of prefabricated fragments, creating a 50-meter radius of metal storm upon explosion.

In the UAV footage, the streets of the East District turned into a slaughterhouse.

The 1515 Armed militants who couldn't make it to the bunkers dropped like mowed grass under the barrage of rockets.

Fragments tore through human bodies, staining the walls with large patches of blood.

On the rooftop of a four-story building, a machine gun emplacement was directly hit, and three gunners, along with their PKM general-purpose machine gun, were blown to pieces.

"Third round." Samir looked at his watch: "Incendiary shells, targets: underground bunker entrances and suspected command posts."

6:05 a.m.

This time only twelve 2S9 "Nona" 120mm self-propelled mortars fired. The incendiary shells they launched exploded in the air, dispersing thousands of small incendiary agents over the target area.

The UAV thermal imaging showed the temperature inside the buildings around the impact points rising sharply.

Those hiding in basements and fortified bunkers, even if not directly burned to death, would suffocate due to high temperatures and dense smoke.

"Armored units, advance."

After the bombardment, Samir issued the ground assault order.

On the east line, tank and infantry fighting vehicle engines roared in unison.

At the same time.

West line, 8 kilometers west of Tikrit, at the edge of the desert.

Holy City Brigade Commander Naxin crouched in the observer post behind a dune, the contour of the West Tikrit District gradually becoming clearer in the dawn through his night-vision binoculars.

His six thousand Holy City Brigade soldiers had established a defense line five kilometers deep, but the desert terrain was too open, leaving gaps in the line.

The US Army's night-vision equipment was air-dropped timely, but the soldiers needed time to adapt to this new gear.

"The east line has started shelling." The adjutant said in a low voice.

Naxin checked the time: 6:00 a.m.

The sky in the east had been stained dark red by the artillery fire, as if the sunrise had come early.

"Let our people be ready." He said, "If the 1515 decide to break through, the west line is the preferred direction. The desert allows for mobility and is only 150 kilometers from the Siria border."

Before he finished speaking, an urgent report came through the radio: "Convoy spotted at checkpoint 3! At least twenty pickup trucks, coming out of the city, moving fast!"