Across the straits, Iran possesses two side-by-side military establishments, the regular army and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC — the infamous Pasdaran. Of the two, the regular military is by far the stronger and better equipped, possessing some 400,000 active-duty personnel. The IRGC, however, had assumed a key importance within Tehran's theocracy as guardians of the Revolution and caretakers of the military's Islamic purity. In addition, the IRGC was responsible for selecting and indoctrinating officers for the regular army as well as the Pasdaran.
Both the regular military and the IRGC combined army, navy, and air force units. The IRGC numbered about 120,000 men in all. Its navy included ten brand-new Chinese Huodong fast-attack craft armed with antiship missiles, perhaps a hundred smaller boats, shore-based antiship missiles, and a large combat swimmer force.
The Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s had largely gutted Iran's military. Much of their equipment — in particular combat aircraft and warships — had been provided by the United States during the reign of the Shah, and with Washington's embargo against Revolutionary Iran, most planes and ships were soon rendered useless by the lack of spares and trained personnel. Over the next two decades, Tehran had aggressively sought to rebuild her military through arms purchases from other nations, including 104 T-72 tanks from Poland; 422 T-72s from Russia; 413 BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicles from Russia; SA-2, SA-5, and SDA-6 surface-to-air missiles from Russia and China; 106 artillery pieces from China; MI-17 helicopters, SU-24 strike aircraft, and MiG-29 fighters from Russia; and older F-7 fighters from China. By the early years of the twenty-first century, Iran's combined military arms included 1,500 tanks, 1,500 APCs, 2,000 pieces of artillery, 220 aircraft, and 30 warships.
Although impressive on paper, a side-by-side assessment of Iran's military with those of its neighbors didn't tell the whole story. Most observers agreed that Iran's offensive military capabilities were weak to the point of impotence. Iran could close the straits temporarily, at least — using a combination of antiship missiles, small attack boats, mines, and her submarine force. More to the point, however, was the key question: why? Closing the straits would hurt Iran at least as much as it hurt other nations dependent on the flow of petroleum from the Gulf. After two decades of war and international isolation, Iran's economy was all but bankrupt, and she depended on the world oil market for survival. Besides, the United States — in particular the U.S. Fifth Fleet based at Manama — could be counted on to apply whatever force was necessary to reopen the straits. Large as Iran's armed forces were, the country could not stand up to a direct conventional military confrontation with the United States.
And so many observers worldwide had discounted the latest round of posturing and saber-rattling coming out of Tehran. Iran had threatened to close the straits before, and nothing had come of it, and so the simultaneous naval landings at Kumsar, al-Khasab, and Bukha, down the western coast of the Musand'am peninsula, caught the international community totally by surprise.
Iranian strike fighters hit first, screaming across the Straits of Hormuz at wave-skimming altitude from marshaling circles off Bandar Abbas, targeting the tiny Omani military base at al-Khasab, and also swinging out over the Gulf of Oman to hit larger bases within Oman proper, at Suhar, al-Khabura, and the capital at Muscat. Their targets were radar installations, SAM sites, and aircraft parked on the ground.
While the bombs and missiles were still falling, a fleet of Iranian CH-47 Chinook helicopters — relics of days when the Americans had poured military arms and equipment into the Shah's Iran as a bulwark against the Soviets — lifted off from Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island and turned south, clattering low across the straits. Iranian Special Forces commandos swarmed down the lowered cargo ramps at Kumsar, a tiny fishing port at the very northern tip of the peninsula. The rest touched down at the only airfield on Omani Musand'am, at the principle city of al-Khasab. Farther down the western coast, at Bukha, naval troops emerged from a freighter that had arrived at the dockside late the evening before, seizing the port and holding it until reinforcements could arrive.
The first ultimatum was issued from Tehran an hour later.
In Ohio's Combat Center, Stewart and the two SEAL officers were gathered around the electronic plot table that took up much of the compartment's space. At the moment, the plot displayed a highly detailed satellite image of Objective White Scimitar, overlaid by lines and geometric shapes rendered in colored markers that showed the position of Delta One, and of various features of the Iranian military base as relayed back by the SEALs. On the forward bulkhead, a large TV monitor currently showed a low-light-optics view of the tunnel mouths. The SEALs had a camera trained on the tunnel entrance, and were transmitting back to the Ohio in real-time.
A radioman entered the Combat Center. "Flash urgent, Captain," he said, handing him the sheet. Stewart read it through twice, as if to wring every possible drop of information from the sparse, almost cryptic words.
TIME: 26JUN08/0705HR
TO: ALL U.S. FORCES, CENTCOM AO
FROM: HQNAVCENT, JUFFAIR, BAHRAIN
PRIORITY: MOST URGENT
IRANIAN ARMED FORCES ENGAGED IN SIGNIFICANT MILITARY INCURSION ON MUSANDAM PENINSULA, LAUNCHING AIR STRIKES AGAINST OMANI AIR ASSETS ACROSS STRAITS OF HORMUZ, FOLLOWED BY LANDINGS OF HELIBORNE TROOPS AT AL-KHASAB AIRPORT. INITIAL REPORTS OF HEAVY FIREFIGHTS BETWEEN IRANIAN SPECIAL FORCES AND LOCAL MILITIA. OMANI AIR ASSETS BELIEVED CRIPPLED. FOLLOW-UP FORCES REPORTED LANDING AT THIS TIME AT AL-KHASAB AND OTHER PORTS IN LARGE NUMBERS. ACTIVITY APPEARS DESIGNED TO SECURE OMANI MUSANDAM AS FOLLOW-ON TO CLOSING OF STRAITS OF HORMUZ YESTERDAY.
ALERT LEVEL FOR ALL U.S. FORCES IN CENTCOM AO HEREBY RAISED TO ALERT-2. DEFENSE POSTURE REMAINS BRAVO, REPEAT, BRAVO. STAND BY FOR FURTHER ORDERS.
SIGNED
RUSSELL SCOTT, ADM
CONAVCENTCOM
Stewart passed the sheet to Drake. "Iran has invaded Oman," he told the others as Drake read. He kept his voice emotionless, masking the bounding excitement he felt. "Less than an hour ago. Started with an all-out air strike. Caught most of the Omani planes on the ground. Then they sent in their Special Forces on helicopters."
Wolfe's brow creased. "They can't invade the whole country by helicopter," he said. "They don't have the logistical base for something that ambitious."
"Apparently, their first target was al-Khasab Airport." He turned to the satellite map displayed on the plot table, keyed in a set of coordinates on the console, and brought up another satellite map, this one showing the Straits of Hormuz and the north-thrusting spike of the Musand'am peninsula. "Here. Apparently there was a sharp firefight with the militia security troops stationed there, but once they had the airstrip, they could start ferrying troops across on C-130s."
The others studied the map. The Musand'am peninsula resembled a left hand with mangled fingers, held palm up. The fingers were represented by a tangle of four smaller peninsulas, all rugged, mountainous desert, twisting north into the Straits of Hormuz from the end of a single, narrow, S-shaped causeway less than a mile wide; the thumb was blunt and straight. The port of al-Khasab was located at the base of the thumb and fingers, with the single-strip, 2,500-yard runway inland.
"There're only two main roads on the whole peninsula," Drake observed. "Along here, down the middle… and over here on the coast." He pointed them out, one a twisting, looping line running south from al-Khasab along ridgetops and crests for over thirty miles before turning west to enter the UAE near Ra's al-Khaymah, and the second hugging the coast counterclockwise from al-Khasab, south through Bukha, and on into the United Arab Emirates at Ash Sha'm. "And that's damned rugged terrain in there. It won't be hard to contain the bastards. All the UAE needs to do is block those two roads."