Sarah rushed up the steps, leading her team from the front with Sergeant Alli Landa covering her as they had practised so many times. Sarah was keyed for combat. As she reached the top of the steps to enter the building, she observed a Basij fighter pointing an AK-74 directly at her. She was zigzagging and his aim was poor. Then she heard the dreaded sound of bullets impacting flesh behind her and a muted scream; she knew right away that Alli Landa had been hit. Sarah eliminated the Basij fighter with a three-shot burst to his head. There was no time to check on Sergeant Landa, but she felt an awful foreboding. Pressing on with even more determination, she energized her command and her team swept into the building. As she advanced with her troops, she knew her biggest fear had been realized. She would lose one of her charges who was also a dear friend. Sick to her stomach, Sarah became a woman possessed. Any Basij that didn’t surrender immediately, she shot without a shadow of remorse.
Once inside the auditorium-style main lobby, Sarah marshalled her squad leaders and directed them to the upper floors. “Bar-Nedar, take six troopers and clear the north stairwell. Be careful of booby traps. These bastards will try and string grenades on the turns or in doorways. Kill them on sight. Remember, we need the leadership alive, particularly Gholamhossein Gheybparvar.” Each commando had cards with photos of the HVT’s (high value targets).
The Basij fighter who had unleashed a burst of AK-74 fire directly at Sarah and Alli had hit Alli in both thighs and one had somehow eluded her Kevlar vest and entered her stomach. Her wounds were catastrophic. One of the medics attached to Sarah’s squads, Nathan Gross, risked his own life to run and drag Alli to comparative safety behind the truck she and Sarah had jumped from. Desperately working to stanch the massive wound to her right thigh, Gross enlisted help from another medic. “Hold this battle compress on her thigh while I get a tourniquet on. Then we’ll check this torso wound.”
“Nathan, I can’t stop the bleeding. Shit! The bullet has severed her femoral artery!”
“Keep the compress on! I need to get the tourniquet as tight as I can.”
Gross then removed the sling from his weapon and, using it as a supplemental tourniquet, he pulled his combat knife from his thigh scabbard and used it as handle to tighten the sling around Alli’s thigh. The bleeding slowed considerably.
Nathan then removed Alli’s Kevlar vest and cut away her fatigues to examine the stomach wound.
“This is really bad. Pray for her! We have to get her to the aid station, now!”
Placing Alli gently on a litter, the two medics ran to the makeshift aid station set up in a commandeered Mercedes Sprinter van just outside the perimeter wall.
CHAPTER 54
Islamic Republican Guards Corps Headquarters
Ari Lazarus and Dov Horowitz had trained two Sayeret teams in Rosh Pina to attack and occupy the headquarters of the IRGC in Tehran. Their objectives were clear. They would take over the building and capture as many of the leadership as possible. Their two primary HVT individuals were the commanding general, Mohamed Ali Jafari, who was the overall commander of the entire IRGC, and General Ali Fadavi, Chief of the Joint Chiefs.
Corporal Yussi Nehrman, the driver of the modified Russian GAZ truck, made the turn across from the main gates of the HQ building and accelerated straight at them. The largely ceremonial guards realized too late that they were under attack and were crushed under the churning wheels of the giant vehicle. At the same moment, Col Lieberman’s flight of F-16I fighter-bombers unleashed a flurry of missiles at the top floors. The commandos leaped from the vehicles and rushed for the entrance. Another two GAZ trucks forced their way into the rear area of the parade ground of the complex and those commandos were leapfrogging each other as they broke into the rear entrances of the building. The attack happened so fast with the coordinated air assault, the IRGC troops inside were completely disoriented; their initial resistance was slight.
Ari’s first stop was the basement, where all the sophisticated communication equipment was housed. He led a troop of ten down two flights of stairs and was met by some token resistance from a half dozen security guards. They were quickly eliminated.
The communication centre was behind sealed doors, which took three minutes to blow open. Two troopers placed high-explosive Semtex around the locks and the hinges and retreated back down the corridor. Ari directed two troopers to keep a sharp lookout for any guards who might attempt to surprise the team by rushing down the stairs. They positioned themselves just at the turn between the first and second levels. While the Israelis were waiting for the doors to blow open, the guards threw two grenades down the stairs from the main floor. Each of the troopers immediately picked up one and threw it back up the stairs. As they were in the air at the entrance to the basement, they both exploded, causing some casualties among the guards. The lead sergeant, Evram Nussbinder, triggered the electronic fuse and the Semtex exploded, destroying the doors and their surrounding infrastructure. Several security guards immediately behind the doors were killed.
Once inside the communication centre, the Sayeret, under Col. Lazarus’s direction, destroyed all the equipment, thus inhibiting the IRGC’s ability to communicate with their satellite hubs and with General Soleimani in Lebanon.
With the damage done to the upper floors, any surviving IRGC commanders were prevented from escaping. Those not injured or killed were rounded up and placed in restraints, then led out of the building to the waiting transport. Among them were Mohamed Ali Jafari and Ali Fadari, the two most senior IRGC generals stationed in Iran. Both HVTs would be taken back to Israel and tried alongside the government leadership captured by Col. Dov Horowitz in Qom.
General Jafari was in a complete state of shock. He was easily subjugated and offering no resistance as his hands were placed in restraints. What was going through his mind was the fact that he and Fadari commanded a force of over 150,000 supposedly elite troops, and yet it appeared that less than one hundred Israelis had overwhelmed his headquarters.
As Ari and his men began to exfiltrate, the guards started to recover. Returning to the main lobby of the building, Ari and his men were met by a hail of automatic fire coming from outside the entrance to the building. A platoon of Guards, ably assembled and directed by a seasoned officer, Captain Mahmed Ahlavi, were attempting to trap and detain the Israelis inside the building until reinforcements arrived.
Ari communicated to the AWAC that they needed air support in a hurry. Colonel Lieberman came on his comms immediately, “Khihl to Macha1…”
“Go, Khihl.”
“Heads down. I’m coming in from the east and will lay down a strafing run.”
In less than two minutes, Ari and his men heard the roar of a low-flying supersonic fighter approaching. Then the air was shattered by the sound of the F-16I Gatling guns firing on the Iranians. Within seconds, the threat was removed and the fighter flew away to aid Sarah Holzman’s forces.
“Macha 1 to Khihl; Todah rabah (thank you).”
Now that their way out was secured, the Sayeret teams began their exfiltration from the destroyed IRGC headquarters. They had the two HVT Iranian generals in restraints, as well as four other senior officers.
As they made their way to the vehicles that had been commandeered to take them to the airport, Ari was getting updates on how the operation on the Basij headquarters was unfolding. The teams led by Sarah Holzman had been successful in capturing two HVT individuals, and although they had sustained some casualties, one serious, they were now exfiltrating and loading into their trucks, ready to travel to the airport.
CHAPTER 55
Alli Landa was bright and vivacious and had grown up a tomboy in a family of four brothers where she was the youngest sibling. Her grandparents, Chaim and Zivia Bergman, had somehow survived the horrors of the Theresienstadt extermination camp because they had both been accomplished musicians. Their SS captors kept the talented musicians alive so that when the camp was inspected by the Red Cross, they could claim it was a work camp wit
h many cultural events and activities for the inmates. It was a charade. Chaim had been a lead violinist in the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra while Zivia had played harp with the symphony orchestra before they were rounded up and sent to the camp.
They had arrived in Israel broken in body and spirit from the DP camps and slowly rebuilt their lives. After settling in Tel Aviv, they involved themselves in the thriving cultural life of the growing metropolis. Chaim had a position at a private school teaching music and Zivia worked for a medical office as a receptionist. To their great joy, Zivia gave birth to a healthy boy. They named him Moshe and watched with supreme pride as he grew into a strong and handsome young man.
Moshe served in the IDF as a tank commander. He met and eventually married a beautiful third-generation Israeli girl, Shoshanna Barents. They settled near Moshe’s parents in Tel Aviv and Moshe started a small company that became very successful guiding tourists from the Diaspora around Israel. Moshe and Shoshanna — or Shoshie, as she was fondly called — had five children — four strapping sons and a daughter, Alli. Alli was quick-witted and an excellent student. As her brothers all rotated through their military service with outstanding records, she was in no way going to be left out. When her turn came to serve, after completing one year in the regular army, she applied to and was accepted into the Sayeret commandos.
As her three years of service was coming to an end, Alli was offered a permanent position as a ranking sergeant in the special force for women. By that time, she had met her future husband, Pesach Landa, and they were married soon after. Pesach was a talented engineer; he worked in a research lab associated with the Technion in Haifa. Alli and Pesach led a unique life. He was the homemaker as well as the breadwinner, while she was always on standby for a special mission. They were deeply in love and their relationship worked, especially after Alli gave birth to their two children, Micha and Avielle. Pesach and Alli knew that her commitment to the safety and protection of the State of Israel carried a risk of danger and perhaps fatality.
The two medics desperately kept trying to control the hemorrhaging from Alli’s grievous injuries. Sarah continued to lead her team up to the top floors while others waited in concealed positions. The elite female commandos flushed any remaining Basij out of the offices and dormitories and down the stairs. Sarah was careful to seek out the leadership. When possible, she captured them, concentrating primarily on locating the Basij commander, Gholamhossein Gheybparvar. She and two of her commandos finally located him cowering in a stall in a women’s bathroom on the second floor. Attempting to conceal his identity, he had stripped off his uniform, but Sarah easily recognized him from his photo card. He was in total denial. He could not believe his office building was being overrun by Israeli women!
As Sarah’s troopers struggled to get him out of the washroom, he became violent, struggling and lashing out at his captors. Sergeant Leila Adon, using a Krav Maga technique, placed him a painful hold that ensured his complete compliance.
“Ok you bastard, now you’ll cooperate. If you don’t, I’ll break your shoulder!”
He ceased struggling and collapsed, screaming in agony on the stairs leading down to the main entrance. Three troopers carried him out and down the stairs. By the time they forced him down to the lobby, he had pissed in his pants and was on the verge of passing out.
Any Basij that showed the slightest resistance were immediately cut down. There was no time to waste fighting them. Gheybparvar was really brave when he could order beatings of civilians, but as soon as he faced real opposition, he tried to flee.
Most of the building had been cleared and the Basij eliminated or rounded up, allowing Sarah to order a controlled withdrawal back to the street where their transport waited.
“Leader S to Sparrows! Pull back to exfil! Keep sharp. Leader S out.”
The medics transported Alli back to their exfil vehicle — the Sprinter van that had been appropriated by some of Ari’s men.
“Aid to Leader One! It is not looking good for Alli!” the medic said. “Can you break off now and withdraw with all of us to the exfil location?”
“Leader S to Macha One. We are taking some small arms fire. They are trying to set up a sniper on the third-floor northeast end window!”
“Gheybparvar, that fat piece of shit is trying to slow down our withdrawal. We are pinned down with him and don’t want to expose ourselves crossing the forecourt. Can Khihl take out the snipers and get us clear passage to exfil? Besides the sniper there are probably one or two slime balls sitting back behind the third-floor windows with RPGs. I need the fly-boys to eliminate these pieces of crap ASAP.”
Sarah and Ari could still hear the F-16Is circling overhead. They had broken off and ducked across to the Caspian Sea to refuel from an Israeli air tanker based out of the Azerbaijan airfield. When they returned, they were looking for targets of opportunity. Ari called Colonel Lieberman’s call sign Khihl on the secure network. “Macha 1 to Khihl! The Sparrows need some more heavy strafing at the Basij target. Deploy your Gatling cannons on to the third-floor northeast windows. Leader S has identified at least one sniper and possibly two more. Khihl, we need this now!”
The conversation was being heard by all the leaders on the closed communication channel.
“Khihl to Leader Sparrow S. Stand by. Heads down we are coming in hot on the target in one minute.”
Lieberman and his wingman flew in low at almost supersonic speed, just above the rooftops of nearby buildings. The sonic waves and sounds from their massive engines shattered windows and caused the ground to shake as they directed the fire of the Gatling cannons to the two top floors of the building. Within seconds, the two floors were reduced to rubble as the .50 mm Gatling shells destroyed everything in their path.
Both Ari and Sarah were awestruck at the devastation. Concrete was turned to powder by the high impact and any person caught in the line of fire was shredded into a dismembered pile of flesh, gore, and bones.
The vaunted IRGC and the Basij were reduced to a cowering, shell-shocked band. There was no leadership left and their will to fight back against the Israelis was gone.
CHAPTER 56
Once the threat from the Basij snipers was eliminated, Sarah and her team began to withdraw back down the street from where they had been driven in the GAZ trucks. They had not planned to use those trucks in case they were damaged or disabled during the firefight. The default was for some of Ari’s team to commandeer trucks from the streets and take the teams to the airport.
They dragged Gheybparvar with them. At this point he was alternately screaming with rage and whimpering in fear. Once all teams were accounted for and ready, they set off for the Tehran airport, where two IAF C-130 aircraft were waiting to fly them back to Israel. They had clearance to fly over Saudi Arabia and on over the Red Sea to Rosh Pina. Ever since the 2015 Nuclear Treaty with Iran, the Sunni Saudi government had a secret pact with Israel that, in the event of hostilities between Israel and the Shi′ite Iran, they would permit the IAF over flight freedom in Saudi skies.
“We need to get her to the hospital and the surgeons on board the air transport now!” Gross urged Ari.
By now, Sarah had joined Ari in the aid van, and she was crouched down beside Alli’s head as the medics worked to save her. Alli’s eyes never left Sarah’s.
“The docs have got you. Just hang in and we’ll be sharing a Shabbat soon enough.”
“Sar…” Alli wheezed through painkillers as she reached for Sarah’s hand.
“Shh! Don’t speak,” Sarah whispered as she gently squeezed her hand. Alli drifted off into a semiconscious state and Sarah knew her friend’s life was hanging in the balance.
CHAPTER 57
The trip to the airport played out exactly as planned. The hour was still early, and the heavy Tehran rush hour traffic had not yet materialized, so they made good time. Ari’s eight drivers, who had acquired seven trucks, and the van drove directly out on to the airside hardstand where the C-130s were
spooling over, watched by hundreds of civilian passengers through the terminal windows. Many believed these happenings were part of some military training exercise until they realized, some in shock, that the two C-130s proudly displayed the Israeli Magen David on their distinctive tails.
All incoming flights had been diverted to airports in neighbouring countries and all outgoing traffic had been grounded by the Israeli AWAC. Stranded passengers were nervously discussing among themselves that some serious event had occurred. They soon concluded that the smoke rising from the city centre and some of the suburbs were IRGC bases that had been attacked by an Israeli air raid. Many were beginning to show fear and concern as to what might happen at the terminal. They worried that the IRGC would mount an attack on the Israeli planes and they could be caught in the crossfire.
Many older travellers began to compare this raid to the Entebbe rescue many years ago. Even though modern civilians were concerned for their safety, it was clear that the Israeli soldiers were not paying any heed to them. Their only concern was the security perimeter around their two C-130 aircraft. Incredibly, other than a small contingent of regular Iranian military and a detachment of border police, there were no visible signs of Iranian forces who could threaten the Israelis.
As they prepared to unload the vehicles and board the planes, word was received from one of the F-16I pilots that there appeared to be a column of Iranian armoured cars and tanks racing down the highway toward the airport. The pilot was immediately patched through to the circling Spooky and alerted its crew to the potential threat. It was clear that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards had managed to organize the armoured column and were attempting to head off the Israelis at the airport. Within minutes, “Mr. Spooky” was over the column, hosing the tanks with the Gatling guns and Bofors cannons. It was all over in less than two minutes. Fifteen 70s-era Russian-supplied tanks were smoking heaps of scrap metal. The twelve armoured troop carriers were skeletal hulks of scorched steel. There were no survivors.
The End of Terror Page 18