Two Years On

TWO YEARS ON: THE WAR IN PHALUHM PHOUECK is a special publication magazine released as a collaboration between The Noble City Times, Libertas Dagelijks (Libertas) and Cape Times (Brunant). While by no means a comprehensive outlook on the coalition efforts in Phaluhm Phoueck, it does give an insight as to what has occurred there.

9 APRIL 2016. A SERIES OF BOMBS IN DAUHAM SAMMAR HAZAHAM, DSH AS KNOWN TO LOCALS, ARE SET OF BY ISIS-LINKED MILITANTS, LEADING TO WELL OVER 300 CASUALTIES, THE SINGLE MOST DEADLY ATTACK IN PHALUHM PHOUECK'S WAR AGAINST MUSLIM EXTREMISM. THIS MARKED A TURNING POINT IN THE WAR, THE CATALYST FOR FOREIGN SUPPORT AGAINST THE ISLAMISTS.

Phaluhm Phoueck, a nation of 910,000 people, has been embroiled in a violent conflict that has lasted over 30 years. For most of that time, the conflict was largely unknown outside of the country, and aid to the people was little and never enough.

Two years ago, soldiers of the Traspesian Batallón de Infantería Ligera "Santa Maria" No. 3 were deployed to Phaluhm Phoueck, the largest and most concrete sign of aid to the county and its government. By the end of 2015, there were 800 Traspesian troops in the country, paving the war for more concerted action.

MULTINATIONAL FORCE PHALUHM PHOUECK

The Traspesian willingness to unilaterally send soldiers to Phaluhm Phoueck opened a number of questions, and ultimately the Wikination Self-Defense Association—SEDEF—agreed to create a multinational force to send soldiers. Traspes, Strasland, Libertas and Brunant would be the largest contributors, with Pintona's medical support team the smallest. Operation Resolute was announced and Corvette Captain (KK) Jens Sonderberg of Strasland appointed to lead the mission.

Combat was not the main objective of most countries;only Strasland and Traspes were willing to actively engage. Security, training, reconstruction and support operations for combat soldiers was the goal. 100 Straslander Marines would arrive by the end of May 2017, and within a month of that other nations would have troops on the ground.

THE ELUSIVE ENEMY "This was not Lovia", one seasoned Straslander sergeant said. "They do not pop up like the Burenians and wait to be shot at." If SEDEF troops were expecting to encounter the enemy, he was not just going to appear in front of them. Indeed, for the first month, as commanding officers were setting up operations in DSH and the soldiers were settling in, they were hard-pressed to see the enemy.

Things were quite from quiet, though, as bombs would go off in cities, police would be attacked, and heavily-armed Phaluhm soldiers and police patrolled the streets of DSH in what could be a scene from a movie.

SEDEF troops were coming to engage two main groups. Daulah Islamiyah Phaluhm—"Phaluhm Islamic State"—and the Islamic Front. DIP has been considered to be the most brutal of the armed groups, allegedly led by an Abdul Rahman. Islamic Front, leading the struggle against the government since 1980 was holding talks with the government over a potential deal, but while nothing was set in stone still operated without impunity. Two Traspesian soldiers, on 17 March 2016 became the first casualties of the war, killed by a roadside bomb in the town of Dasal. Juan Lucas Corona was injured on 18 by another bomb, while Gerardo Cardona became the first casualty from weapons fire, though this was deemed a one-off attack not linked to the main armed groups. Meanwhile, soldiers lay in wait, manning checkpoints, patrolling streets and countryside areas.

Once SEDEF arrived it was more of the same, the seemingly uneventful days pierced with the sounds of explosions in the distance, or nearer on occasion. Several convoys fell pray to improvised explosive devices, IEDs, and other roadside bombs, with the enemy sight unseen

MARYENTA

"We came to this village, not bigger than Felterne, where they are poor and fearful, of us sometimes but mostly of them. We were told it was quiet and our Phaluhm translator talked them up." Within a day of getting there we heard rumours of something happening, but there was no intelligence. Our superiors in DSH said to move along with the patrols. The 27th was quiet, and so was the 28th. Next day we went out on the first round that day, all was quiet. In the afternoon we went out again and kept [Vicekorporal] Bakker and [Corporal] Jensen in camp with the machine gun because it was broken, again. We heard some animals in the forest that spooked the point man, but we kept going..."



"[inaudible] [explosion]. A fucking landmine just went off... [pop, pop, pop] shit, we're being shot at. Larsen, you see anything? No. Fuck my rifle's jammed, come here.... [inaudible]. Down there, fucking 50 meters away, you see? Get behind the wall, we'll have cover... I could see ten, they have a machine gun. [inaudible] send it over. Grenade out.. [explosion, inaudible]

29 July 2016. First contact with the enemy. 21 Straslander soldiers patrolling near the village of Maryenta were ambushed by insurgents. It quickly turned into an intense battle, lasting perhaps two hours, as these soldiers kept a group of over 10 armed men at bay, no more than 50 meters from their position. Just after 4 PM the fighting died down as the enemy slipped away, and reports suggested that in all 10 insurgents had been killed.

"We did not sleep that night, cause we knew from Phaluhm soldiers they often came back overnight or in the morning. In the morning they came back, and we killed four. We thought that maybe 10 or 15 had attacked us, but reports from locals and headquarters said close to 50 were closed in our position."

FIGHTING, AND DYING IN A FOREIGN LAND

We knew the stories from Iraq, from Afghanistan. Attacks on soldiers were brutal there, but for some reason we imagined something different here... Corporal Daniel Krom, engineer, 2nd Infantry Company. Like Corporal Krom, the Brunanters, and certainly the other soldiers deployed knew what could happen, with Traspesian stories and news reports revealing the extent of IED explosions. But, many did not imagine what could truly happen.

"At the time, we had no idea the Khabal region was one of the most dangerous in the country", said Private Gerard Bosch. Bosch was fairly new in the Royal Guard, not yet two years in, and excited to go overseas. "I would hear the older guys talk about Afghanistan, and since I missed out on that and Lovia, I wanted very much to go."

"I was sent to Khabal, not knowing anything about where I was going. We went on patrol as a group, paired in twos with large distance between us." Bosch was paired up with Lance Corporal John Charlton, a Pintonan medic who was just as new as him in the military. "I remember that day. Not all of it, but what I do is much too clear. The first two guys went across the ravine, then the next two, and then John and I... I don't remember being dragged out of there, but when I awoke there was ringing in my ears and blood everywhere. Later I heard John had died, that he, you know, absorbed a lot, that he ended up saving me. I tried to move and find him, I couldn't believe he could be dead while I lived. But I couldn't move. Not that I could see, but it dawned on me my legs were ruined."

That same day the first news reports were head in Brunant. The Cape Times' first account was short: ''Brunanter Private Bosch has been injured by a roadside IED bomb in the center of the country, in the area of Khabal. He is the first Brunanter casualty in the conflict. Private Bosch was travelling with an unnamed Pintonan medic, who was killed from the blast.''

WHY WE'RE THERE ''A few hundred people are marching in Koningstad to oppose the war. With the two soldiers being injured just recently, many have become more vocal in their anti-war stance. News Brunant'', 14 June 2017.

The photos of Private George Abboud and Lieutenant Andrew Martins were seen on television, newspapers and the internet in the days following 12 June 2017. The two were injured by an IED while out on patrol, undergoing an apparently routine mission. At home, their injury and attack was far from routine, and many quickly became vocal in opposition to the war. "Why are we there?", proclaimed a Daily Post editorial, "Why Troops Are Not Needed" was the opinion piece for Het Kladblad, and StarTV's Daily Report went as far as to claim that "we are almost emulating America in a way, and only now realize the price we are paying." Brunant is not the only one; Traspes has seen a number of small protests since 2015, and in the fall of 2016 Libertas saw a number of larger protests occur, notably in Wikistad.

But, there are others who say that those views, though with good intention, are misguided. We did not invade Phaluhm Phoueck, as was done in Afghanistan and Iraq; we came to help an allied nation. We are not sending soldiers to the front lines to fight the enemy on our own; we're working with our SEDEF partners to support Phaluhm Phoueck in their war.

OPERATION GHOST GHOST. 1700 soldiers, 20 artillery pieces, 3 helicopters. The largest operation in the war to date, with the aim of clearing the State of Kota Kambular of armed insurgent.

Kamrbia was a significant insurgent stronghold. It is not a big town nor strategically important, but most of the civilans there were forced into a brutal way of life under islamist control. The Phaluhm army had attempted operations there at the start of the years, but local commanders refused to go in alone. Thus, SEDEF was called in to what would become a large logistical endeavor. XV Company Santa Maria Battalion, 7th Infantry Company (Brunant), 2 Platoon Royal Strasland Marines and 15th Libertan company were there to back the 850 Phaluhm troops.

"We knew the risk was great, but nearly 5000 people were basically imprisoned in their own town", says Major Anton Steinbach, in charge of Libertan soldiers. "It was time to be bold, and hopefully luck would favor us. But, politics is as much a part of war as rifles and bullets, and we started with building a camp while the helicopters did the first fighting."

Camp Unitas would be the home for SEDEF troops during the operation. This soon became the main target for insurgents. The fighting was intense but short, with the enemy attacking only to disappear in almost no time.

Most of the action, it seemed, was based around IEDs, which have so far been the biggest threat to coalition forces, rather than enemy insurgents themselves. "Three of our soldiers have been casualties to roadside bombs, and I personally knew one of them", recalls Maj. Steinbach. He was referring to Matroos (Seaman) Lianne Kuipers.

Seamen Kuipers and Isaac Winter, both in the Libertan Navy, were deployed to Phaluhm Phoueck in 2017, and came to see action during GHOST. They would be in a Land Rover Defender, one of several light patrol vehicles used by the army. The two would be based out of Camp Unitas and occasionally depart as part of a small convoy to patrol around the camp and the countryside. Like other soldiers, they managed many successful missions. Unlike most, their tour would come to a sudden halt. The night of 3 June they went out of the camp and headed towards the town of Kamrbia. A driver on another car, Corporal Henk De Vos, knew they had to be careful. "We purposely avoided the sides of the roads. It's where most bombs are planted. But, there was no way we could've known. I was two cars back, and heard the first one, which they seem to have avoided, and then saw the second one, which destroyed the front of their car."

In what seemed like an eternity, they radioed in and waited for a medical team. "It wasn't good. But Isaac and Lianne are strong. I knew it." With soldiers like De Vos to help care for them, Kuipers and Winter were evacuated back to the camp and managed to survive. Their war was over, and they were soon back in Libertas. But for many more, it had barely begun.

16 JUNE 2017

ISIS. We didn't know how many, but only that they were in the town. Now it would be more than just containing them. And so, we moved in. On 16 June, 20 Phaluhm soliders, 6 Straslander Marines and 2 Brunanters went into the town to search houses. "We were the first to enter in months, recalls Vice Corporal Viktor Hall, so we really moved with caution. We imagined bombs would be there, but we also feared snipers and machine gunners. We were going in a dark house when a bomb went off in the main floor. At the time I did not know what happened but I heard Erik [Cpl. Berg] and other wounded men. Lots of gunfire as well."

Vice Corporal Viktor Hall, Royal Strasland Marines and Sergeants Hegon and Mansor, Phaluhm Army were essentially holed up in the second floor of a house, while the rest of their group deal with the casualties below. 4 Phaluhm soldiers died, six were injured, as was Corporal Erik Berg of Strasland. "The officer in command, Lieutenant Ricky Pasion ordered us out and to help save the wounded", recalls Cpl. Berg. "We had no idea that Victor and the other were still in the house."

For over an hour, these three men fought and kept at bay some 20 armed insurgents. "It was fucking intense. An experience I will never forget." Corporal Hall, though, was trained well and kept his cool. "Mansor was shot at one point and a bullet got lodged in my helmet. Adi [Hegon] asked me to grab something and just as I went down I felt it in my helmet. Sometime later something exploded and Hegon was heavily bleeding. I got shrapnel in my leg but it was nothing. He was really bad. At some point they had a machine gun placed and Aziz [Mansor] and I essentially were snipers and shot one after another who came to take the place at the machine gun. I think they gave up after 30, 40 minutes, or they ran out of men to man it."

Sgt. Mansor and VC Hall, with Sgt. Hegon on his shoulder made it out of the ruined house after well over an hour of an intense firefight. There were 14 confirmed casualties, 9 dead, and likely others which could not be verified. "Here, I knew that the enemy had no rules. When we left the house I saw a mother and her daughters crouched and scared in their garden. 'We had no choice', she told Aziz. 'We allow them to place the bomb in our home or we all die."

KEBAHAN

Even during GHOST we didn't really encounter them. Only once in 2016 did we fight them and I'm hoping we can do the same.

These fateful words were told to Corporal Anthony Hoever by his friend, Corpl. Juan Daniel Kuster. 23 year old Kuster and his unit, the 1st "Cygnus" Company, were sent to two areas, and Kuster's ended up in the town of Kebahan in early October. Hoever said, "we were there to show our faces to the town, to prove we could provide security, and to go on what I called then 'more pointless patrols.'" It quickly became more than just more pointless patrolling. On 8 October, while going by some farmland in the evening, 40 Brunanter soldiers were ambushed by 100 to 120 heavily armed insurgents. "Machine guns were firing from the left and the center, and at one point mortars were being fired, though rather ineffectively." Straslander marines, who were not too far from the Brunanters, were radioed to send artillery strikes. Two GIAT LG1 77 guns were positioned to fire on the enemy, and at 19:04 local time began to fire. But, they were quickly halted.

"The first few shots fell short, and there was yelling to call them off. It was quickly radioed and stopped, but it took a moment to realize why." Juan had been hit. "There was miscommunication, or they miscalculated, or... I couldn't, t the time, really grasp... I thought he would live, I gave myself that hope. It quickly became apparent his situation was critical." Corpl. Kuster died while on route to receiving hospital care. He has become Brunant's first death in the war and one of only three in the post-WWII period, alongside Sergt. David Barnes and Marine Guard Aleida Heymans.

WHO THEY WERE

At present, these are all the SEDEF troops in Phaluhm Phoueck; each square represents a man or woman involved in the fighting, with those in a lighter shade representing the dead. They are overwhelmingly Traspesian, who have 1000 combat personnel in the country. Brunant follows with 400, Libertas with 220, Strasland with 146 and for Pintona, 14.

Traspes has lost 5 soldiers, and all but Strasland have lost one. For Pintona it is especially hard, as Lcpl Charlton is their only soldier to die during service since World War II. But for each nation, every casualty is no less important, though while expected from war was something they wanted to avoid. In the towns where they were from, their deaths were felt among all, and even in parts where they had not come from, people still felt the loss. But, none felt that more than those that knew the soldiers and sailors in person. "Sandra was always an active, restless girl... we bought her dresses but she would ruin them fighting bigger boys in her school." In a small apartment in the old city of Cerques, Clarisa Rosales reminisces about her only daughter. "She did good in school, but in secondary was determined to join the military. When they said she would have to wait for the army, she went for the navy."

Seaman Sandra Maria Roca went through training successfully and then served on the patrol boat "Clarisa Osborne", though her time there was brief after she was trained to be a gunner on a naval helicopter. Interviewed by a local paper, she said she joined once Traspes entered the war, though she did not believe she would be trained and ready by the war's end. She did helicopter training alongside Martin Reyes, who would be a pilot. But, to her surprise, the war kept on going and in the spring of 2017 received notice of being sent to Phaluhm Phoueck. She was to be involved in GHOST, the largest operations of the war to date.

She arrived aboard the helicopter carrier Alcacer. Two sorties on the 4th of June, three on the 5th, and after the 6th she was flying five sorties daily. The 10th of June was meant to be like any other day, but her pilot reported significantly more attempts to bring down his Agusta helicopter, though stated that "Sandra is keeping [the men on the ground] on their toes". During one transmission a loud explosion was heard, transmission was cut, and a few minutes later a message came to the ship's command that a helicopter had been downed. Corporal Reyes, age 31, died instantly, and Seaman Sandra M. Roca attempted to send a message to her ship before dying herself. At age 20, she is the youngest coalition casualty of the war.

TWO YEARS ON

It has now been over two years of fighting. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and unlike other conflicts in recent years, some form of a victory is attainable. But there is still much more to come. Nobody expected a quick and easy war, and were braced for a long-term commitment. But, there is no doubt many soldiers, officers and non-officers alike no doubt had the Burenian Invasion in the backs of their minds, where a quick two-month containment and strategic coordinated attacks saw off the enemy with catastrophic defeats. The direction of the conflict is also evolving, with a new strategy being introduced for the end of 2017 and 2018. Member contributions are evolving as well, with the end of 2017 seeing Insel military personnel assisting SEDEF in logistic roles. As 2017 turned to 2018, a new kind of hope was being seen among locals and military alike. Attacks seem to have diminished, and a sense of trust for the foreign troops began to take hold. As a local official in Reval often would tell inhabitants, "they are here to help, they really are. It is not a mess like Iraq." Even the soldiers are also experiencing this change. "They would look at you from inside their houses", said Brunanter Corpl. John Elteman. "If [children] were playing or [women] were doing chores, they would run in and close their doors. I was in the first tour sent in 2016, and it was tough. Now things are different. Just a few days ago I had a local child in town [Kebahan] ask to play football with me. It's looking better, and we hope to make it better."