Empire Conquest-Chapter 908 - 124: Special Forces

About 20 kilometers upstream from Sinafiye, in a relatively hidden river bay.

After the helicopter flew far away, and patiently waiting for a while, Lei Zhenting finally allowed his subordinates to start the rubber motorboats after confirming there were no abnormalities around.

After leaving the river bay, the three rubber motorboats sailed close to the right bank of the river. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

There were a total of 39 special forces soldiers on these three rubber motorboats, exactly three combat assault teams.

No one spoke, and even the sound of the engines was very faint.

Because they were going downstream, there was no need to run the engine fast, and the rubber motorboats could reach a speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

The mission of this unit was to seize the Euphrates Bridge in Sinafiye!

To be precise, it was to participate in the battle of seizing the bridge, executing the most dangerous stealth mission.

Before the air assault forces arrived, they had to locate and dismantle the remote explosives placed on the bridge piers by the Iraqi army, preventing them from destroying the bridge by blowing up the piers. If capable, they also had to try to capture and control the northern bridgehead.

Lei Zhenting was dispatched to the Alliance Headquarter three days ago, after the operation to attack Bag X had started. He learned from Ding Zhennan that to successfully capture the Euphrates Bridge near Sinafiye, a highly elite special forces unit was needed to act as the vanguard.

Otherwise, the Military Intelligence Bureau would not have sent Lei Zhenting and his team.

Lei Zhenting is currently serving the Military Intelligence Bureau, even though before serving it, he worked in the "Tiger Camp", the Empire’s Army Special Forces, for almost ten years.

Of course, no matter where they serve, Lei Zhenting and these special forces soldiers are still soldiers of the Empire.

Moreover, the Military Intelligence Bureau is a military intelligence agency itself, under the General Staff Department, managed by the Ministry of Defense, and directly responsible to the Grand Secretary.

It indicates that all personnel of the Military Intelligence Bureau are active-duty soldiers.

Upon reaching King Khalid Military City, Lei Zhenting learned from Ding Zhennan that the Alliance had begun planning to seize the Euphrates Bridge at the end of July.

Moreover, the success of capturing the Euphrates Bridge would determine the success of advancing to Bag X.

The reason is simple: Bag X is north of the Euphrates River, close to the Tigris River, so crossing the Euphrates River is necessary to attack Bag X.

Without a bridge, relying solely on pontoon bridges is challenging for supporting large-scale operations.

Theoretically, the passage capacity of six mechanized pontoon bridges is equivalent to one dual-lane four-vehicle highway bridge, with even less capacity for floating bridges.

Maintaining six 2000-meter-long mechanized pontoon bridges requires at least three engineering battalions.

The key is, it is now the rainiest season of the year, the water level of the Euphrates River is constantly changing, and the current is very rapid.

There are dozens of reservoirs upstream on the Euphrates River.

Simply put, the Iraqi army can artificially raise the water level of the Euphrates River by releasing water, countering the pontoon bridges set up by the Alliance Army.

Theoretically, just a few large reservoirs releasing water simultaneously can destroy the floating and pontoon bridges at Samawa.

The point is, regardless of how strong the Alliance Army is, they cannot conquer a flood.

Even if the flood cannot destroy the Alliance Army, it can create many troubles, such as delaying the Alliance’s advance, and causing the Alliance to spend more time attacking Bag X.

According to the original plan, the Alliance placed the ground war to recover Kuwait at the end of the year, the dry season, to avoid unpredictable factors and ensure the successful completion of the encirclement operation, annihilating the Iraqi army invading Kuwait through a campaign-level maneuver.

Ding Zhennan’s strategic foresight also manifested at this time.

At the time, many staff officers believed that all the bridges on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers inside Iraq should be destroyed during the airstrike phase to prevent the Iraqi army from moving south and reduce the burden of the ground war phase. However, Ding Zhennan firmly believed that several bridges had to be preserved. Although at the time, Ding Zhennan’s reasoning was to allow the Iraqi army to move southwards to thoroughly destroy Iraq’s national defense capabilities, it is now clear that Ding Zhennan had already foreseen that the Boss Bay War would not end after the recovery of Kuwait.

The preserved bridges included the Euphrates Bridge in Sinafiye!

Additionally, pontoon bridges and floating bridges require regular maintenance.

Of course, the safety factor of pontoon bridges is also not high.

In summary, unless after capturing Basra, advancing from the north of Hammar Lake, and always pushing towards Bag X on the north side of the Euphrates River, capturing a bridge is necessary.

The problem is, north of Hammar Lake is a swamp, with only a few poor quality low-grade roads, and the road on the west bank of the Tigris River is close to the border. A segment is less than 30 kilometers from the mainland of Boi Country, within the strike range of long-range artillery and rocket artillery.

Worse still, north of Hammar Lake was the main battlefield during the Iran-Iraq War, and in the later years, it became a hard fought area for the Iraqi army.

This area is filled with minefields, with millions of mines yet to be cleared.

Furthermore, Highway 1 is south of Hammar Lake!

The ideal choice is to advance along Highway 1 and cross the Euphrates River near Nasiriyah.

Unfortunately, before the Iraqi army in Basra surrendered, the Iraqi army guarding Nasiriyah destroyed the bridge on the Euphrates River.