Amaliyyatu Lubnan ٢ (Operation Lebanon 2)

Part 1 - Destination War

Battling... fighting... all over again. After Amaliyyatu Lubnan (Operation Lebanon), I had a 3 day break. God was it heavenly. My body went to the mercy of relaxation after the painful strain of a combat mission. The relief was unspeakable. But the relief was not drowned out by the lingering feeling that the strain would come again... the fighting... the bullets... the blood and death... it would all come again in the strain of war. A war of which we were at a disadvantage. Rumour had it that Israel had send a task force of around 400 tanks, 400 combat aircraft and an estimated 50,000 foot troops to fight in Lebanon. Meanwhile, on our side was the combined forces of Hezbollah and the Lebanese army. This is around 300,000 foot troops (including untrained village militia), which is a much bigger number than was sent by the adversary. However, we had maybe 50 tanks. Our armour numbers were limited. More over, we had maybe 50 or 100 aircraft to fight theirs. It cannot turn out well.
I got in to my car, a blue Toyota Hilux, and drove to the barracks, where my unit is stationed. I was the last to arrive from my unit. I made my way to the common room, where my unit were all relaxing; preparing themselves as they wouldn't have relaxation time at war. I joined them in the casual atmosphere that had created itself in the room. We talked rather confidently, which was suprising as the odds of anything close to a victory in this war were very very miniscule. In the room, we were in a state of relaxation but also a state of waiting. Waiting for the command to assign us to a battle front. The barracks was in a state of high security as it was considered a high value target for Israeli Forces. Therefore, a unit of around 100 soldiers were placed on guard to protect the barracks. And should it be attacked, more soldiers were on standby to fight for it. There were approximately 20,000 fighters at least in Beirut alone on standby. So Lebanon had quantity... a big quantity of fighters to protect it. It just lacks a skilled army and skilled units. Something that my friends in the unit and I would love to address... we were willing to prove the world wrong. The world assumed that Lebanon would fall in this war... that Israel would invade us. And we were willing, in the special forces, to prove them wrong. Since Amaliyyatu Lubnan, we were quickly promoted to be the leading unit of the special forces. The most elite. The kings. The ones who fought the mista'arvim and won. And now, the time would come again to kick their asses before they think they can invade Lebanon.
As we were discussing how we thought the war would turn out (overall, the verdicts were not ones of confidence now), the sat phone began to ring, which heralded the chatting to conclude and give way to an anticipating silence. I answered the phone, surrounded by fighters, eager to help in the war... and it was the commander... the leader of the army. "Get your weapons ready, you are needed urgently in the southern town of Al Naqoura. Once you get there, fortify yourselves in the houses there and wait for an enemy assault. After this, just act in anyway you deem to be responsible and correct." These were the words of the leader of the army himself. After briefing the men on what we had to do, we rushed to the armoury and got our weapons ready. Personally, I decided that I wanted to use an AK-47, with a suppressor and an ACOG sight, in the fight as my main weapon and a silenced Five Seven pistol as my secondary. We only have 1 Five Seven as it was a captured weapon. After preparing myself, one of the unit's men, Mahmoud Al Masry, approached me. "What type of weapon do you recommend for this mission?" He asked me with a slight degree of urgency. As it was his first mission, I told him to just pick a weapon which he was familiar with. He picked the MP5 sub-machine gun. Somehow, he seemed to have used it a lot in his job as an armed police man, before his assignment to this unit. After around 30 minutes, it seemed we were all ready. This time, I decided to use a helmet with an eye shield and a camera attached as it seemed to prove amazing to other units in the war. After a few final checks, we all got in to our cars (most of them were armoured Humvees) and made our way to Al Naqoura. We had some SAM escorts, in case of attack by Israeli Aircraft or Helicopters. Driving through the cities and in to the countryside made me realise how beautiful what we were fighting for actually was and how important it was for us to keep it.