DECEMBER 27, 2019
KIRKUK, IRAQ
7:20 P.M.
Death strikes without warning. Rockets are in the air.
It is evening here at Camp K-1, just after dinner. Sandbags line the perimeter for protection against terror attacks. Without warning, the first explosion hits. Men dive for cover as shrapnel flies. The sun went down two hours ago, making the brilliant light of the detonations visible from miles away.
The rockets are deadly Iranian antitank weapons, most likely fired from several miles distant. The launchers are welded to cargo-truck beds, allowing the terrorists to change locations immediately after firing.
Camp K-1 is shared by American and Iraqi troops, but the five-foot-long Katyusha rockets focus only on the American side. More than thirty rounds land, wounding four US service members and two Iraqi security personnel and killing Nawres Hamid, a civilian contractor working as a linguist for the Americans.
Hamid is thirty-three, a married father of two from Sacramento, California, and known for his gentleness. He is originally from Iraq but has since become a naturalized US citizen. The translator is a Muslim, and his body is immediately flown home for burial in accordance with the tenets of his religion.
Quickly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks out against the attack. More than fourteen thousand American troops have been assigned to Iraq in response to the growing ISIS and Iranian threats. There have been eleven rocket incidents targeting coalition bases since November, but no one has been killed until tonight. This brazen attack is an act of war.
The secretary of state is blunt: “We must use this opportunity to remind Iran’s leaders that any attacks by them, or their proxies of any identity, that harm Americans, our allies, or our interests will be answered with a decisive US response.”
Three thousand miles south of Iraq, in Mogadishu, Somalia, there is more Iranian mayhem. General Qasem Soleimani has funded al-Qaeda terror squads since the death of bin Laden ten years ago. Now, one day after the rocket attack in Kirkuk, Iranian-backed terrorists keep a close eye on a security checkpoint in the busy hub of the chaotic city.
A truck filled with explosives parks in front of a tax-collection center. Truck bombings have long been a favorite Iranian killing method. It is Saturday morning, the first day of the workweek in predominantly Muslim Mogadishu. Streets are filled with workers. Students walk quickly, late for class.
The truck bomb explodes.
Windows shatter. A percussive blast rolls outward from the place of detonation, shattering the eardrums of those nearby. In an instant, more than 90 people are dead and more than 125 wounded. Their bodies litter the sidewalks. Almost all are university students. Black plumes of smoke blot out the blue morning sky. Nearby vehicles are burning skeletons.*
After seeing the carnage, Secretary Pompeo tells the world it is time for “a decisive US response.”
American fighter jets go hunting the next morning.
The time is 11:00 a.m. United States Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles fly in formation over Iraq and Syria. Far below is the Euphrates River Valley, where mankind has waged war for thousands of years. The American pilots are vectoring toward Iranian ammunition depots and command posts that have been used by General Soleimani to launch attacks on US forces. Five targets, three in Iraq and two in Syria, have been preselected. The sites are guarded by Hezbollah terrorists loyal to Iran. Each American aircraft has precision-guided bombs affixed to a hard point beneath the wings. Overflight in Syria means potential conflict with Russian MiG fighters, but that is a risk the American military is now willing to take. The F-15 pilots are focused on their mission, ready to deal with the Russians if needed.
President Donald Trump has named his war against terror the “maximum pressure” campaign. So far, the United States has refrained from directly attacking Iran. Trump’s focus has been on eradicating ISIS. But tension between the mullahs and the United States has escalated since America pulled out of the nuke deal.
The fighter pilots do not hesitate as they reach their targets, releasing their bombs and then turning back toward home base in Iraq. They see each bomb detonate, sending thick black clouds pluming into the air. Secondary explosions follow as ammunition dumps are blown up. The American attack comes without warning; there is no time for the terrorists to flee. Twenty-five militants will die, and another fifty-five are injured.*
Back in Somalia, American forces of the United States Africa Command also strike. This time, another wave of US jets kill the militants responsible for the Mogadishu truck bombing. The air strikes, conducted in conjunction with the Somali government, kill four militia members at two separate sites. The lethal actions against the terrorists send a clear warning.
Iran immediately pledges revenge. “Our response will be very tough on the American forces in Iraq,” says senior commander Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, leader of a paramilitary group loyal to Qasem Soleimani.
Russia calls the American action “unacceptable” and “counterproductive.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately phones Secretary Pompeo to congratulate him.
Pompeo himself issues a statement—knowing Soleimani will hear his words almost immediately. “What we did is take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months. Which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy.”
President Trump stays silent, allowing the military action to speak for itself.
Baghdad is ablaze.
New Year’s Eve. Vandalism and arson are rampant. After three months, protests continue in the Iraqi capital and show no signs of abating; if anything, the tension has escalated. Thousands of Sunni Muslims are taking to the streets to condemn the Iranian military. But now they are also engaged in a war of words with Shia counterprotesters funded by Iran.
A third group joins the confrontation. Mourners dressed in militia uniforms are just leaving the funeral for Hezbollah militiamen killed in the US bombing two days ago. They march down Kindi Street, near what is known as the Green Zone. This heavily fortified sanctuary is home to the American embassy. Iraqi security forces guard a checkpoint marking the entrance to the zone—but step aside as the angry mob marches closer.
Shouting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” the mob throws rocks at the American embassy, then breaks windows and spray-paints graffiti over the entry building. The outer walls of the embassy are breached. Waving pro-Iranian flags, the protesters force their way inside storage facilities and ransack files.
Fire soon breaks out in the Green Zone. US ambassador Matthew Tueller is out of the country on personal travel, but the agitators do not know this. The terrorists have been instructed to take control of the embassy and parade captured staffers before the world.
Soon, more militia fighters join the fracas. US marines stand atop the main embassy building, their guns trained on the pro-Iran crowd below them.*
In Washington, a furious President Trump takes to Twitter. “Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Iraq.
“They will be held fully responsible.”
Back in Baghdad, the militia protesters settle in for a long siege. Tents are pitched throughout the Green Zone as the angry mob forms a perimeter around the Americans trapped inside the embassy. One thousand militia members spend the night. By morning, images of the mob are flashed around the world, allowing American intelligence to identify several of the men inciting the violence as cohorts of General Soleimani.
The Iraqi government makes no attempt to dislodge the attackers, even though the terrorists are a direct threat to American embassy personnel. This is in contrast to the way the Iraqis treat dissenters threatening them; tear gas and live ammunition are routinely used. After a nighttime rest, the mob once again launches a siege.
To the staff inside the embassy, the attack is clearly premeditated. “They were going around with large poles and knocking down the [security] cameras to limit our views on the outside of what was going on,” one American security official will later note.
“They were disciplined and had an agenda,” another CIA agent inside the embassy will add, noting that the mob threw Molotov cocktails inside the grounds in an attempt to detonate the fuel depot. As American employees worked to battle the blazes, they were pelted by rocks.
The biggest fear in the minds of embassy employees fighting back the attackers is, “Benghazi.” In 2012, protesters attacked the American consulate in Libya, causing the deaths of several Americans.
“Benghazi definitely … crossed everyone’s mind,” one American official said.*
Finally, the marines have had enough. They fire tear gas into the crowd, and two AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships zoom low in a show of force. Word circulates among the terrorists that America is sending several hundred soldiers to protect the embassy.
Twenty-four hours after their arrival, the Shia mob marches away. “We rubbed America’s nose in the dirt,” one protester gloats to the press.
It is now January 1, 2020, as the embassy siege comes to an end. The death of Nawres Hamid occurred just five days ago. Every day since has seen the threat level between Iran and the United States rise.
“The game has changed,” states Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, adding that American forces will shortly begin launching preemptive strikes against Iran.
Nevertheless, General Soleimani feels he has an advantage. He decides to oversee a new wave of Iranian attacks on American troops. Soleimani quietly makes plans to travel from Damascus to Baghdad—hoping to provoke war between his country and America.
The general boards a Syrian airliner for a flight to Baghdad International Airport. His name is not on the official passenger manifest, and the plane has been delayed several hours to accommodate his schedule.
The time is shortly after ten on the night of January 2.
The man with two hours to live is walking into a trap.