the world is at stake

On March 3, the three armored divisions of the Israeli army launched simultaneous attacks from the north of Ramadi and the south of Fallujah. Ten hours later, they all broke through the Iraqi army's defense line on the Euphrates River and approached Baghdad.

The two Iraqi infantry divisions in charge of the defense were wiped out.

On the 21st, Israeli troops occupied Baghdad International Airport in the west of the city.

The Sharon government issued an ultimatum to the Saddam regime, demanding that it immediately step down and hand over power, hold democratic elections, and respect the wishes of the 500 million Iraqi people.

Saddam's answer was only one word - 'Bah! '

On the 22nd, the Israeli army, which took a short rest, was dominated by tanks. 10,000+ troops entered Baghdad from three directions, north, south, and west, and violently demolished houses.

There are still six days before the end of the dungeon.

The 10,000+ regular Iraqi army did not show any weakness, and it really broke out to be bloody, fighting street after street with the Israeli army inside and outside the city.

The war was not only fought in Baghdad, but also a large number of Iraqis came to support in various vehicles from all over the country.

Syria even announced that it would send a volunteer division, intending to travel thousands of miles to support Saddam—but this unit was blown back by British and American fighter planes in the no-fly zone when it crossed the border.

But this can't stop a large number of volunteers from helping Baghdad in small batches.Even Muslims in Israel are marching and protesting, spurning the government's aggression and joining the battle to defend Baghdad.

Said from Jerusalem flew to Iran first, received three days of military training at the Iran-Iraq border, received an '81-1' and several magazines, and was stuffed into a truck heading to Baghdad.

The old truck bumped all the way, and the 'volunteers' in the compartment were silent.Some people were excited, some hesitated, some looked around, and some were anxious.

Opposite Said is Habshi, a young Muslim from Paris.He was only 17 years old, holding an RPG-7 launcher.Next to him is his 15-year-old brother, holding two rockets, looking silly.

The two brothers listened to Saddam's speech and were inspired by it, without telling their parents, they used their pocket money to buy a plane ticket to Iran.They met Said on the plane to Iran, and they had a good conversation, and the training was hard and serious.

But as soon as they crossed the Iran-Iraq border, the faces of the three became ugly.

In order to prevent Baghdad from receiving reinforcements and military supplies, Israeli warplanes are always staring at the Iran-Iraq border, intercepting and killing any personnel and vehicles coming from Iran.

Iran has protested countless times, but it is useless.

As soon as the troop truck crossed the border, the driver of the truck accelerated like crazy.But the border roads have long been full of potholes and bomb craters, and the only way to run is the wilderness full of sand and gravel.

The truck ran like a crazy rhino in the wild, the engine roared super loudly, and the speed was kept at more than [-] kilometers, which was very bumpy.

The Habsch brothers were delicate disciples living comfortably in Paris.Before they came to Iran, they never had calluses on their palms.But when I came to Iraq in the blink of an eye, everything I ate and drank was downgraded, and it was even difficult to drink clean water.

After sitting in the crazy truck for less than half an hour, Habshi's younger brother got motion sickness and vomited lying on the back of the car.He asked the driver if he could drive slower...

But the driver yelled in the cab: "If you don't want to die, please bear with me. This is a war, not an outing. The Jewish plane may bomb us at any time."

Said's face was also ugly.He was only in his 20s and worked for the Israelis in Jerusalem. He felt that his life was suffocating. He also listened to Saddam's speech and came to defend Baghdad as soon as his brain got hot.

The Habshi brothers were vomiting so much that Said's stomach turned upside down, and he felt a little regretful—being a dog for the Jews didn't seem so painful anymore.

Next to Sayid sat an elderly veteran from Afghanistan, holding a very battered rifle.Compared with other young people with delicate skin and tender skin, his old face is already wrinkled, and his age cannot be seen.

Seeing that the Habshi brothers were vomiting, the Afghan veteran took out a small pocket from his dirty robe, rubbed two cigarettes with his rough palms, and handed them over, "Child, smoke a cigarette, it will feel better .”

The faces of the two brothers turned pale. They took the cigarette and lit it with the lighter of the companion next to them. After a few puffs, they felt more comfortable.

Said also ordered one, coughing non-stop, and calmed down a lot."What is this?" he asked.

The veteran laughed, "What can we grow in Afghanistan? Think for yourself." Seeing that Said was nervous again after laughing, he continued to comfort him: "Don't worry, life and death are God's arrangements."

The cigarettes really stabilized the rookies, and even Habshi's younger brother looked better.Holding the rocket, the child suddenly pointed to the outside of the truck and shouted, "Look, what is that?"

Outside the car are several bombed missile launch vehicles, some are model fake targets, and some are real ones.There are also logistics vehicles that provide support for the launch vehicles, and they were also destroyed and twisted to pieces.

There was a charred corpse lying outside the wreckage of a truck. It seemed that his whole body was set on fire when he was attacked, and he escaped and ran for a few steps before falling down.

"It's a white phosphorous bomb." The truck driver first yelled, and then laughed, "What are the Jews using? Are you rookies already peeing your pants from being scared? Now it's too late to regret it, you can jump from my car go down."

Jumping out of the car is equivalent to being abandoned on the vast Gobi, no one will come to rescue, and you will die sooner or later.

Baghdad is more than 100 kilometers away from the Iran-Iraq border, and it only takes two or three hours to get there by truck cross-country.

It’s just that Said’s car drove halfway, and a warning message suddenly came from the radio in the cab, “The vehicles headed for Baghdad should immediately evade and find a place to hide. The Jewish plane is coming again.”

The truck driver just didn't care, driving all the way through the rugged wilderness.But when he heard the warning signal from the radio, he immediately shouted 'Hurry up, hurry up', and stepped on the accelerator as if in a panic, the speed of the car increased sharply, and the body of the car bumped even more violently.

It's just that most of the Middle East is an endless flat Gobi, and even a sand dune is rare, and there is nowhere to hide.The old truck drove more than ten kilometers and stopped among a pile of rocks.

The warning messages on the radio became more and more intensive, making people's heart beat thumping.

The driver stopped the car and yelled at the top of his voice to tell everyone in the car to come down and find a place to hide.Said hugged his '81-1' and ran away after getting off the car. The Afghan veteran grabbed him by the neck and pinched his skin with his rough hands, forcing him to lie on his stomach behind a low slope.

All the dozen or so people in the car got out of the car, and the driver also took down a long packing box from the car.He asked loudly: "Who will use the 'vanguard' made in China? Who will use it? Who has learned it?"

Said has only learned to use an assault rifle, aiming and pulling the trigger.The Habsch brothers probably knew how to handle a bazooka, and so did most of the others.

Three days of military training, in fact, I learned nothing.

"Is it 'Stinger'?" The Afghan veteran beckoned, "Let me try."

Several people hurriedly unpacked the packing box, and there was indeed an individual anti-aircraft missile that looked like a 'stinger' inside.But it is not the same thing as the American 'stinger'.

"It's okay, there is an instruction manual. Who can read? Read it to me." The Afghan veteran asked looking up.

The truck driver shook his head, expressing that he did not understand.Most of the other volunteers also came from the bottom of society, mostly illiterate.The veteran turned his attention to a few young people from the city.

Said immediately lowered his head, and Nuonuo said, "I worked as a porter in Jerusalem, and I didn't go to school seriously."

Habshi pushed his younger brother, "Go up and recognize him."

The 15-year-old boy stepped forward to take the instruction manual and read out the Arabic text with rich pictures and text on it.The use of individual weapons and equipment will not be too complicated, that is, the names of each part of the weapon and the steps to use it.

But before the little boy finished reading, a guided bomb from somewhere in the sky hit the truck parked on the ground with a bang.The car body was blown to pieces, and smoke and dust billowed.

The dozen or so 'volunteers' who were hiding tens of meters away were all taken aback, hugged their heads, and let out a sound of sand.When their ears were buzzing and they looked up again, the car that brought them was gone, leaving only a bomb crater in place.

The decades-old veteran shook the dirt on his head, not paying attention.He only asked Habshi's younger brother to finish reading the instruction manual, and he showed that he had learned it by manipulating it a little more-it was not far from the 'Stinger', and there was no difference.

Although the truck is gone, the road still has to go on.Anyway, it is very close to Baghdad, and you can walk there on two legs.

Just before starting again, the Afghan veterans pushed Habshi’s younger brother out of the queue. He said to the truck driver, “Take this kid back. He can read and he didn’t deserve to die on the battlefield.”

The truck driver is a middle-aged man with a beard and very greasy.He looked at the veteran with vicissitudes of life, then at the boy who was still immature, and pulled the latter to his side without saying a word.

Veterans head west with 'volunteers', to Baghdad.

The truck driver took the boy east, back to Iran.

Habshi put his younger brother's rocket on his back, and only turned his head to take a look, too late to say goodbye.

Chapter 41 Burning Baghdad

The sun is scorching, unobstructed.

There was a truck wreck in front of him, and there was no way out behind him.

Afghan veterans became the head of this 'volunteer', leading the way.Under the cruel current situation, it is not that no one flinches.But there is no choice in the vast desert, so we can only bite the bullet and go on.

The truck driver pointed in the direction and said that the team needed to go to Baquba, a small city north of Baghdad, to organize and get some supplies at the same time, otherwise they would be exhausted and thirsty halfway.

The other is to keep an eye on the sky—Israel has long-endurance high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and if it finds a crowd of more than five people gathering on the ground, it will call fighter planes to drop bombs.

"You'd better be in a group of three and keep a distance of more than 50 meters, so as not to be killed by a bomb." This is what the truck driver told him before leaving, as if he believed that they would be bombed.

Tasting the taste of life and death without firing a war, Habshi's face turned pale again.But he was lucky enough to be assigned with an Afghan veteran.Said helped carry a rocket and walked with them.

"What do you do all day in Paris?" Said looked at the veterans walking silently ahead, and asked Habshi in a low voice, "Don't the French teach you to read?"

17-year-old Habshi is of North African descent, with curly hair and fair skin, a typical urban kid.He carried the bazooka and ammunition, and was tired and out of breath after walking a few hundred meters.

"I like to go to the city center during the day to find tourists with hand straps to get money, and at night I take a dagger to the beautiful city to grab the wallets of those Chinese. I don't like to go to schools run by French people. I know some French, but I don't understand Arabic. "

"Why does your brother know Arabic?"

"Because the French government subsidizes education for North African families. We have to have someone in my family go to class to get the money. The French are all idiots and beg us to study. But the French girls are nice and beg us to fuck them up .”

Speaking of women, Habshi grinned, as if to ease the weight of the weapon on his shoulders.He stretched out his hand and gestured, "I have slept with double-digit French women."

Said was extremely jealous when he heard this, and his face twitched.Habshi asked him back, "What about you? How many Jewish women have you slept with in Jerusalem? What's it like?"

Said, who was a few years older, had a sullen face and repeated the previous sentence, "I am a porter for the Jews in Jerusalem. I don't want to be pointed at by those Jews, so I am going to Baghdad."

Sleeping with a Jewish woman, want to fart? !

Israel is not the romantic France, where Jewish military police use sticks and rubber bullets to teach every Muslim how to be a model obedient citizen.

After walking for two hours, the Afghan veteran kept pace.

But Habshi was panting like a dog with exhaustion, and walked with a limp.Said looked at the leather shoes the boy was wearing, and knew that the boy probably had blisters on the soles of his feet and it was broken.

In the Iranian training camp, I did not practice at all. I just got up early and ran exercises, learned how to disassemble and use weapons in the morning, conducted ideological education in the afternoon, and practiced emergency assembly in the evening.

There are still five prayers a day, which must not be missed.

After three days, the 'volunteers' were sent to the truck without much suffering and rushed to the battlefield.

The truck was bumpy, and at most it was uncomfortable to vomit. Habshi always thought that he would be fine until he got to the battlefield.

President Saddam Hussein is so great, Baghdad must be a crowd of heroes.Judea is about to be attacked by a mob, and they will naturally retreat thousands of miles—go back to Paris and tell the story, and the French girl will definitely get what she wants.

But now Baghdad is still unknown, and my younger brother returned because of his literacy.The soles of Habshi's feet were in unbearable pain, his chest and lungs were on fire, and the shoulders carrying the bazooka were worn out, soaked in salty sweat and stinging.

Just when Habshi sighed and regretted running from the comfort of Paris to suffer in the desert, another truck transporting 'volunteers' came up from behind and picked up these unlucky hikers.

After another hour of turbulence, the 'volunteers' led by veterans arrived in Baquba.

The small town has been turned into a military depot, accepting armed personnel from Iran and the mountains in northern Iraq.These people come from various sources.Some are tribal militias, some are foreign cynics, and some are jihadists.

Baquba is run by a major who is met by almost everyone who visits the place in a small room upon entering the city.It was a North Korean soldier with a broken arm, his voice was high-pitched, serious, and somewhat encouraging.

When Habshi entered the hut, he couldn't help but tremble when he saw the North Korean major with a broken arm.He didn't feel like a normal person sitting in front of him.

A normal person would not work day and night with blood oozing from a wound on his forehead.A normal person would not have a thin face, red eyes, but sharp as a blade, appearing weirdly excited.

"Young man, what's your name?" When Major Broken Arm opened his mouth, his hoarse voice was so loud that the walls of the room seemed to be shaken to dust.

"My name is Habshi."

"from where?"

"Paris."

"Why are you here?"

"Come to join the holy war."

"Welcome."

Bang...Major Broken Arm stamped Habshi's papers and put him in the 'Faremen Akbar'.

Said went in next, and asked the same questions, also stamped his certificate, and was in the same group as Habshi.

Only Afghan veterans went in, and after asking a few more questions about their resumes, they were incorporated into the 'emergency mobile team. '

Major Broken Arm also asked the veteran if he wanted to change his gun?The 'Mosin Nagant' in the hands of the latter is so old that the rifling may be gone.

But the veteran said that the gun was okay, the barrel had been replaced several times, the rifling was fine, the gunsmiths in Afghanistan were not bad, but the bullets were hard to find.

Habshi and Said wanted to follow the veterans, but were stopped by a small Iraqi officer.They are going to have a meal, and then they have to go to the battlefield.

"Jewish invaders have invaded Baghdad, street fighting is going on day and night, and reinforcements are urgently needed on the front line. Young people, take courage, President Saddam Hussein is waiting for news of your victory."

The Afghan veteran was going to the armory to find ammunition. Looking back at the two pitiful young men, he could only smile in relief, "Don't be afraid, my child. With God's blessing, we will meet again in heaven."

These words split the two young men into idiots like a thunderbolt.

Baquba is in a mess, and people are shouting and cars are ringing.Radar stared at the sky, and anti-aircraft guns never stopped.The long-range cruise missiles of the Israeli army fell from time to time, forcing the 'volunteers' in the city to move in and out quickly.

Many people came from thousands of miles away, and were killed before entering the city.

Habshi followed dozens of people into a hut, and was stuffed with a piece of meatloaf and a pot of water.The small officer leading the team only gave them half an hour to eat and rest, and then they had to go to the battlefield.

After taking a bite of the hard meatloaf, Habshi couldn't help but want to cry.The people around saw him tearful, and advised him to eat quickly, otherwise he would lose his energy during the battle.

"This is not the jihad I thought of." Habshi whispered, sobbing: "If I knew this, I should have gone to school with my brother. I regret it now."

Said was also in a daze at the meatloaf in his hand, but he still ate it silently.Seeing the crying "little master" from Paris next to him, he didn't know whether to empathize or ridicule him.

This is indeed different from the jihad in many people's minds, but in the current environment, it is useless to regret it-'once' there were British Muslim girls who went to the Middle East to be wives for jihadists, and even gave birth to several children. Treated as a lust machine.

In less than half an hour, the small officer was calling the members of the 'Allah Almighty Death Squad'.It was another shabby truck with more than [-] people crammed into it.

It was difficult for Habshi to breathe, and he swayed all the way south.It was dark when we arrived at the east bank of Baghdad two hours later.He got out of the car and looked towards the Tigris River, in front of him was a burning city.

The frenzied Israeli army dropped thermobaric bombs in the city, and the burning flames lit up most of the night sky.Under the firelight are collapsed buildings and crumbling ruins.

The enormous lethality of modern weapons can be felt even at a distance of several kilometers, which cannot be resisted by manpower or offset by will.

In an instant, all 'volunteers' could understand the huge gap in strength between their own side and the invaders.There is a huge gap that cannot be bridged between the two, which determines the life and death of both parties.