Chapter 1793 - 1372: Titrick's All-Out Offensive Begins (Part 4)

Four T-72s form a wedge formation and slowly enter the streets of North City District.

The main gun aims at suspicious windows and intersections, and the coaxial machine gun is ready to fire at any time.

Infantry follows behind the tanks, using the hulls as cover, clearing each building.

The first building is a two-story small shop. The infantry squad divides into two groups, one covering the door, the other breaking in.

After the door is blown open, two soldiers quickly rush in, aiming their weapons at every corner.

No one on the first floor.

They carefully climb the stairs, and urgent footsteps sound from the second floor.

"Grenade!"

A grenade is thrown down from the stairway corner, bouncing on the floor.

"Evade!"

The soldiers dive to the sides.

Boom—

The grenade explodes, shrapnel hits one soldier's leg, and he screams and falls to the ground.

Another soldier immediately retaliates, sweeping half a magazine upstairs.

The sound of someone falling is heard.

They rush to the second floor.

A young 1515 armed militant lies in a pool of blood, still clutching an AK-47.

Beside him are two others, but they're already dead.

They seem to have been blown apart by artillery, the bodies incomplete.

"Clear!"

They finish clearing the first building, mark it safe, then turn to the next one.

Thus begins the street fight.

Every building, every room, behind every door, could hide an enemy.

The progress is slow and bloody, with every step paid for dearly.

Abu You looked at his watch.

6:35 AM.

The northern bridgehead is established, though at a heavy cost.

At least fifty killed, two tanks and three infantry fighting vehicles destroyed.

Fortunately, they've gained a foothold on the north bank.

"Report casualties, resupply ammo," he said over the radio, "Tell the soldiers this is just the beginning. The real tough battle is yet to come."

He glanced south, towards the center of Tikrit City.

That's the real nest of the 1515.

Southern line, south of Tikrit City, abandoned textile factory.

The "Musician" Defense's mercenary camp and the government army special company have been lurking behind enemy lines for over 24 hours.

They're hiding in workshop number three of the textile factory.

This building was half destroyed early in the war, and the remaining part is crumbling, but it became an excellent hiding spot.

1515 considers it unsafe and rarely patrols here.

Captain Mahmoud squats behind a broken wall, observing the city hall square 500 meters away with his telescope.

After the shelling started, the situation in the square turned chaotic.

Of the more than a hundred 1515 militants originally assembled there, over half were casualties when the first shells landed.

The remaining flee in panic, some hide in the city hall building, others escape to nearby underground bunkers.

But Mahmoud's mission isn't to attack these stragglers.

"JTAC team, confirm target," he says into the encrypted radio.

Three hundred meters away, on the rooftop of a six-story residential building, three US Army Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) lie under waterproof cloth.

They have laser designators and encrypted radios, tasked to provide precise guidance for the incoming airstrike.

"JTAC-3 confirms, target: City Hall main building, coordinates marked."

English with an American accent comes through the headset.

"There are heat signals inside the building, at least fifty people. Request airstrike."

Mahmoud checks his watch: 6:10 AM.

According to plan, the first wave of airstrikes should be at 6:15 AM.

He continues to observe.

Around the city hall square, some surviving 1515 soldiers are organizing defenses.

They drag out sandbags, set up machine guns, and even deploy two ZU-23-2 twin-barreled anti-aircraft guns in the center of the square.

Despite being Soviet-era weapons and outdated, they still pose a threat to low-flying aircraft.

"Anti-aircraft guns," Mahmoud says over the radio, "In the center of the square, at 2 o'clock, two of them. Need priority clearance."

"Copy."

Time ticks by.

6:14 AM.

Engine roar comes from the sky.

Four F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bombers enter from the southeast at an altitude of 3,000 meters.

They arrive swiftly, almost flying over the city at the moment of hearing the sound.

"JTAC-3 calling 'Hammerhead' squad, target laser designated, guide code Alpha-7."

The US Army's JTAC begins to guide.

The first F-15E dives down, altitude drops to 1,000 meters.

The pilot presses the bomb release button.

Two GBU-31 JDAM 2000-pound precision-guided bombs detach from the racks.

These bombs use GPS/INS combined guidance, with a circular error probability of no more than five meters.

In the air, the bombs adjust their posture, with the tail control wings constantly micro-adjusting to keep the trajectory straight towards the target.

6:15 AM sharp.

The first bomb hits the rooftop of the city hall building.

2000 pounds of high explosives release massive energy instantly, the top three floors of the building collapse as if smashed by a giant's fist.

Bricks, concrete blocks, rebar, and body parts are blasted hundreds of meters high.

The second bomb explodes after a 0.1-second delay, enters through the gap made by the first bomb, and explodes on the fourth floor.

The shockwave bursts out from every window, turning glass to powder.

The building structure suffers a fatal blow, starts to tilt slowly.

But the attack isn't over yet.

The second F-15E's target is the anti-aircraft guns in the square.

It drops GBU-38 500-pound small diameter bombs, smaller and more precise, with less collateral damage.

Two bombs hit almost simultaneously.

Two ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns and the gunners around them are blown to pieces.

The blast wave flips nearby two sandbag fortifications, the machine gunners inside are shocked to death.

The third and fourth F-15Es begin "cleaning" the surrounding buildings.

They use CBU-105 sensor-fused cluster bombs.

Each parent bomb contains ten submunitions, each equipped with sensors, capable of automatically detecting armored targets.

This weapon was originally designed to counter tank clusters, but now used to clear out infantry hiding in buildings, equally deadly.

The bombs explode over the city, releasing hundreds of submunitions.

Like raindrops, each submunition falls, capable of penetrating floor slabs and exploding indoors.

Through the observation telescope, Mahmoud sees the three buildings around the city hall instantly turned into slaughterhouses.

Flames and smoke burst from windows, even if people inside are not killed by the explosions, they will be crushed to death by collapsing buildings.

The airstrike lasts five minutes.

When the four F-15Es ascend, turn, and disappear into the eastern sky, the city hall square is already rubble.

"Target destroyed," the JTAC team reports, "Suggest ground troops can advance now."

But Mahmoud doesn't move.

He's waiting.

According to plan, after the airstrike, the 1515 command system would fall into chaos, defenders panic.

Then, his assault team should initiate the attack, capture the city hall ruins, establish a forward command post.

However, in the city hall ruins, something is moving.

It's not survivors climbing out, but...

Someone is walking out.

Mahmoud adjusts the telescope magnification, sees those people clearly.

They're civilians.

Old men, women, children. They crawl out from the city hall basement entrance, stumble on the rubble.

Some with faces covered in blood, some carrying injured family members, some dazed by the explosions, just standing there, gazing at the hellish surroundings.

Many, at least two hundred people.

"Damn," Mahmoud curses softly, "1515 locked civilians in the basement as human shields."

He counts, mixed in with the civilians are some armed militants.

These men hide behind civilians, using guns to push the civilians forward.

The direction is...

South. Right where Mahmoud and his team are lurking.

"Attention all units," Mahmoud says over the radio, "Human shields approaching, mixed with armed militants. Do not fire, repeat, do not fire."

But it's too late.

A platoon from the government army's special company ambushed in a building south of the textile factory.

They only see a group coming from the city hall direction, some holding guns.

The platoon leader misjudges the situation.

"Fire!"