There is still one more day left to claim your chance to win fabulous prizes! Check out the shop to win, leave a review on Amazon, and subscribe to the blog for future updates plus a chance to win! In the meantime, happy Independence Day! Enjoy the thirteenth chapter of the Dhofar Redemption, get caught up starting with Chapter One.
Captain al-Ibrahim received orders to depart two nights later. The village they were tasked with defending had gone two nights without a counterattack, and regular army forces were on their way to take the place of Captain al-Ibrahim’s men. Harrigan and the rest of the officers and NCOs gathered near the al-Ibrahim’s makeshift quarters near the center of the small village and reviewed the plan for the next day’s movement.
The next village on their list of liberation was another undeveloped, but vitally important crossroads. Sultan Qaboos fully intended to bring the country into the modern era, and building and improving roads was high on the “to-do list.” Harrigan could appreciate that sentiment, as much of the country he had seen so far was simply desert interrupted by the occasional village built around an oasis.
Harrigan had learned, through painstaking translation by Ahmed, that their current location was the village of Haima. He figured the new Sultan intended to use the village as a waypoint on the new highway being built North to South through the country, from the seaport of Salalahin the South to the capital, Muscat, in the North. What Captain al-Ibrahim told Harrigan was it appeared the next village was another vital crossroads of the planned highway. The village was close to a water source, and would be the base of a fork off the highway that would lead drivers to the coast.
The scarce intelligence they had on the next village was that the adoo had been using it as a base of operations to launch attacks on neighboring villages and Omani military and police posts. Based on the intelligence provided by Muscat, there were roving bands of adoo working around the village and into the mountains closer to Thumrait.
Harrigan was happy to see was that the next village was way too far away to patrol to on foot. They would be taking helicopters and setting up an ambush near the village oasis after the regular Omani forces arrived to secure Haima.
After formulating a loose movement plan, al-Ibrahim sent the platoon leaders back their men to ensure everything was in order for the next day. Ramsey and Nowak bickered quickly over whose turn it was to hold the perimeter, which was settled by a quick shout from al-Ibrahim sending Nowak back to the perimeter with his men.
The night passed uneventfully, and the regular Omani forces replaced Captain al-Ibrahim and his men before sunrise the following morning. The special company piled into the waiting Wessex helicopters and with a strained scream from the engines, they lifted off from the village. The helicopters were overloaded by al-Ibrahim’s company, and Harrigan briefly worried that his ride would slam back into the desert below.
Lumbering under the weight of all the men and equipment, the helicopters turned Southwest after levelling off and headed towards the sea. Captain al-Ibrahim pulled out his map and using hand signals to communicate over the roar of the whirling blades beating the rapidly warming air above them, showed Harrigan where the Wessex helicopters were taking the men.
Their next objective was a little village called Shalim, and it rested on an unimproved trail that led down to the coast. Much like with Haima, the objective was to scout Shalim and figure out what the adoo had been up to. After Shalim was secured, the unit was to patrol further South to Ash Shuwaymiyyah, which was suspected of being a hub of smuggled supplies headed to the adoo.
By the time the helicopters brought Harrigan and the rest of the unit to their landing zone, the sun had risen enough to bake the landscape, and the troopers were stung by grains of hot sand as they offloaded the helicopters and ran away from the landing zone. Once unloaded, the Wessex that deposited Harrigan roared into the air and shot away towards the airfield near Salalah to the South.
Shalim was only a few kilometers away, and the troopers patrolled quickly across the relatively flat ground. Harrigan was surprised to see sharp scrub bushes dotted across the landscape. The brush comforted him to know that if an adoo patrol stumbled across them they would at least have something to hide behind, although Harrigan knew that there was no way the thin brush would stop a bullet.
Within a couple hours of marching over the hot, sandy desert, the forward element signaled for the rest of the unit to halt. The men flopped down in the sand, trying to take shelter in the sparse shade the desert shrubs provided. Captain al-Ibrahim motioned to Harrigan and Kelly, and they jogged to meet the forward scouts at the base of a rocky hill in front of them.
Captain al-Ibrahim conversed with the scouts in hushed tones. Harrigan’s poor Arabic meant that he had a hard time keeping up with the Omani and Baluchi soldiers reporting to Captain al-Ibrahim, but he was able to discern that Shalim was on the other side of the rocky hill in front of them, and that the town appeared deserted.
After listening to the scouts, Captain al-Ibrahim turned to Harrigan and Kelly. “Take Ahmed and Malik up the hill and set up an observation post. Leftenant Ramsey and Leftenant Nowak will encircle the town on the North and South.”
“Got it,” Harrigan said, and with Kelly and their Charges in tow he stalked up the hill as the rest of the unit behind him got back on their feet and headed in their assigned directions.
Harrigan, Kelly, Malik, and Ahmed were in position ten minutes later, with Kelly and Malik scanning the village below through their sniper scopes, and Harrigan and Ahmed using their binoculars.
“All I see are camels,” Kelly hissed to Harrigan, “it looks abandoned down there.” It was true. There were swirls of dust and the occasional camel and goat walking down the street of Shalim, between the sand-colored houses in the village.
“Wait,” Ahmed said, “I see something!”
“Where?” Kelly asked, swiveling his rifle around.
“The third house on the left side of the street,” Ahmed was getting excited, “I saw a woman close her blinds.”
Harrigan tracked his binoculars over to the house, but all he saw was a curtain waving slightly in the breeze. “I don’t see anything,” Harrigan said to Ahmed, “but that doesn’t mean that she’s not down there.”
The small team waited for ten more minutes before Captain al-Ibrahim radioed to announce that Leftenant Ramsey and Leftenant Nowak’s platoons were in position. Harrigan reported that they had seen only minimal movement, making sure to tell him exactly where Ahmed had seen the woman peeking out of her window.
From their perch in the hill, Harrigan and his team watched as Leftenant Nowak and Leftenant Ramsey maneuvered their men through the village. The men swept quickly and efficiently through the small village, and Harrigan could tell that they had not found any adoo by the time Captain al-Ibrahim radioed to have the team come down from their observation post.
Harrigan gathered up his equipment and led the way down the hill, Kelly slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and held his Swedish K submachine gun in the crook of his left arm. Malik and Ahmed followed their American teachers down the hill and into the village.
“I think that is her,” Ahmed said as soon as they walked into the village. Captain al-Ibrahim was standing near the house that Ahmed had spotted the woman in, and Harrigan could see a young woman in traditional garb speaking with the Captain. Unlike some of the women Harrigan had seen since arriving in Oman, this young woman was not wearing the black mask over her face. In fact, her face was uncovered entirely, with her headdress covering only her hair and under her chin.
As they walked even closer, Harrigan became aware of other women and young girls poking their heads out of their houses and watching the rifle toting men roaming through their village.
“Where are all the men?” Kelly asked, “I haven’t seen a single man, just women in the houses.”
They had walked close enough to Captain al-Ibrahim that the Captain had heard Kelly’s question. “The adoo took them,” he said angrily, “Some were taken to camps in Yemen for training, others were left in Ash Shuwaymiyyah, those that resisted were killed.”
The young woman the Captain had been speaking with chattered angrily in Arabic, gesturing wildly with her hands. “This is Mira,” Captain al-Ibrahim said, “her father was the village elder here. He tried to keep the adoo away, and organized his own firqat to fight them, but when the adoo came to the village, the small firqat were all killed, and her father was taken prisoner.”
“Is he still alive?” Harrigan asked, although he suspected he knew the answer.
“No,” al-Ibrahim shook his head, “the adoo took him to Ash Shuwaymiyyah and threw him off a cliff into the ocean as a warning to all others who might oppose them.”
“Damn,” Kelly murmured, “That’s brutal.”
“Agreed,” Captain al-Ibrahim replied, “and Mira says that the adoo come here every couple of nights to make use of the women they left here.”
Mira was glaring at the men in front of her, waiting for Captain al-Ibrahim to fill in Harrigan and Kelly. Harrigan could not help but notice she was quite pretty, probably in her early twenties. She had a commanding presence that led him to believe she had crowned herself the new village leader after her father was taken.
“When are the adoo coming back?” Kelly asked, and Captain al-Ibrahim asked Mira, who responded quickly, pointing to the South.
“She said she isn’t sure,” al-Ibrahim relayed, “but they haven’t been here for two nights, so she thinks that they will be here before nightfall.”
“How many?” Harrigan asked, and al-Ibrahim shook his head.
“I already asked her,” the Captain said grimly, “she said sometimes it is twenty, other times its almost fifty men. They come here for days to use the women and girls in the village, then they leave some food as payment and go back to Ash Shuwaymiyyah.”
Harrigan checked his watch reflexively. It was just after one in the afternoon, which gave them just a few hours to get set. Captain al-Ibrahim barked out orders and the men started running around preparing to repel the adoo if they showed that night. Mira informed them that there was an oasis about five kilometers to the South that the adoo controlled, and that they would be stopping there to refill their water before marching into town.
Captain al-Ibrahim got on his radio to make a request for backup from the army units in nearby Salalah but was told there would be no ground support coming. The best they could do was keep a squadron of attack planes and helicopters ready to scramble and come to their aid.
Climbing on top of one of the flat-roofed houses, Harrigan and Ahmed set up an makeshift observation post that gave them a commanding view of the village and the trail approaching from the South, where they were pretty certain the adoo would walk right up to the village. Kelly and Malik set up another observation post on the roof of an almost identical house across the street.
Harrigan was happy to take the heavy radio off his back and leaned it against the low wall that ringed the roof. As he set up his observation post with Ahmed, he watched the rest of the unit rush to make their preparations. Leftenant Nowak’s platoon was hastily digging fighting positions along the perimeter of the town, Ramsey and his men were digging mortar pits, and Mira and Captain al-Ibrahim walk along the village while Mira talked and gestured angrily.
“She’s a bit of a looker, no?” Nowak’s head appeared suddenly over the lip of the roof, causing Harrigan to jump. The creepy Polish Leftenant had startled him.
“Sounds like they’ve had a rough go of it here,” Harrigan replied, purposely not answering Nowak’s question.
“I don’t know about that,” Nowak sneered viciously, “sounds like the ladies here have been getting laid a lot more than I have been lately.”
“They’ve been getting raped, Nowak,” Harrigan spat, Nowak exasperated him, “doesn’t sound good at all.”
“Whatever you say, Harrigan,” Nowak said, “Maybe after we kill the communists for them, they’ll show us a little appreciation. If you know what I mean.”
Before Harrigan could respond to Nowak’s disgusting comment, he dropped back down off the crate he had been standing on walked off back toward the perimeter.
“Leftenant Harrigan” Ahmed spoke softly, “I do not like Leftenant Nowak.”
“Me neither, Ahmed,” Harrigan said, “He gives me the creeps.”
Harrigan watched Nowak the whole way back to the perimeter. The Polish Leftenant stopped only to check out Mira as she walked by with Captain al-Ibrahim, and when they had walked past, Nowak turned toward Harrigan’s observation post, and with an evil grin snapped a sloppy salute to Harrigan before sauntering to his men digging foxholes at the perimeter.
Shortly before sunset, Harrigan spotted a dust cloud approaching from the South. He alerted Captain al-Ibrahim, and the word spread around the village. Harrigan could feel the tension building in the air, and as he watched the dust cloud get nearer, the troopers in Nowak’s platoon settled in behind their FAL battle rifles, preparing for the approaching enemy to enter the kill zone.
By Harrigan’s count, about three minutes passed before the tell-tale glint of a windshield appeared on the horizon under the dust cloud. As he settled his binoculars on the approaching vehicle, he was startled to see it was not the military truck or jeep he had expected.
“Wait!” Harrigan shouted down to the troopers waiting below, “Its not a truck, it’s a Datsun or something.”
Sure enough, a beat up, white Datsun sedan was speeding toward the village on the dirt track from the oasis.
“Is it just the car?” Captain al-Ibrahim asked.
Harrigan peered through his powerful binoculars at the rapidly approaching car, “It’s just the car.”
Captain al-Ibrahim radioed Leftenant Nowak to tell him to stop the car and investigate if possible. The last thing the Captain wanted to do was accidentally kill a friendly local and alienate them from the people they were supposed to be liberating and protecting.
Harrigan watched through his binoculars as the car drove closer to the village. Four of Nowak’s troopers jumped out of their fox holes and the car ground to a halt in front of the men, some three hundred meters away from Harrigan’s vantage point. The Omani troopers approached the car cautiously with their rifles raised at the occupants of the car.
Through his binoculars, Harrigan watched as the troopers relaxed and lowered their rifles. The closest trooper approached the driver’s side of the car, and Harrigan started to relax a little.
Harrigan was still watching through his binoculars and could almost see the look of shock on the trooper’s face as a long burst of automatic weapons fire punched through the doors of the Datsun, tearing into the trooper’s gut and chest and dropping him to the ground, squirming in the throes of death.
Two of the other troopers with him met a similar fate on the other side of the car. Harrigan watched the first take a long burst into his chest and tumble backward into the sand. The second tried to duck out of the way, but the burst that was meant for him ripped through his head and he dropped in a heap in the blood-stained sand. The final trooper dove backwards and pressed himself into the sand to avoid the gunfire spraying from the Datsun.
Out of his periphery he could hear the dual reports of Kelly and Malik’s sniper rifles, and the many FAL battle rifles from Nowak’s platoon barked in response to the sudden ambush. The Datsun was pocked with bullet holes as rounds impacted the hood and windshield. Harrigan was sure he saw at least one of the occupants get hit, but the sedan slammed into reverse anyway and sped off back toward the oasis.
Leftenant Nowak was up and screaming at his men, yelling at them for failing to stop the car, for not getting their dead and wounded comrades out of the kill zone, yelling at them for every fault he could imagine. “Leftenant Nowak!” Captain al-Ibrahim yelled, “get your dead and wounded back here, and put your men back in position. The adoo will return.”