The Kirkuk Op

By David J.R. Harding

Kirkuk Iraq in 2004, and Aziz Hadi, a former strategist in the Hussein regime has a plan to remove the US forces from Iraq. The plan will, at the same time instigate a civil war in Kirkuk, between Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen, Sunni and Shiite. It will be the start of an unending cycle of violence. Tahssen, former Preshmerger Soldier, now a terrorist with Ansar al Islam will be Aziz’s sword. In the middle is an NGO trying to assist with the rebuilding of Iraq, but now acutely aware that there are deadly terrorists in its area of operations. The NGO hires Tom Quillian a former SAS soldier who is now a private security contractor. But to succeed, Tom must overcome inner demons, and failing could threaten the very existence of Iraq. This novel is a work of fiction, but based on experience. It could be true.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David J.R. Harding
• Release date: Jul 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301369140

David J.R. Harding

David J.R.Harding writes from experience gained from more than 30 years working within government and private security fields. In that time he has served in the Australian Army’s elite Special Air Service, and the Australian Federal Police’s elite Air Security Officer Program. David has protected several of the world’s richest business persons, and conducted private investigations and security operations spanning four continents. David has advised leading business persons, diplomats and Ambassadors. David has been a lecturer and trainer, and his articles and novel not only entertain, but have within them deeper meanings for security and counter terrorism development. David has a Masters of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. Although his first novel is a work of fiction, it has been based on his and others personal real life experiences. It could be true. David lives in Canberra with his family.

Book preview

The Kirkuk Op

By

David J.R. Harding

Copyright © 2013 by David J.R. Harding

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*.*.*.*.*.*

The Kirkuk Op

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase you own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The characters are production of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

*******

Many thanks must go to Kim for her help in editing and revising this story.

My most profound gratitude goes to Dhana and Storm for their unconditional and continuing support.

******

The Kirkuk Op

CHAPTER 1

The old taxi, an orange and white Fiat, travelled slowly south down the one way street. The driver was looking for a place to leave his vehicle, but with cars parked on both sides of the street, there were none. Looking ahead, the driver could just make out the police checkpoint, about four hundred meters away. The checkpoint was manned by the local Iraqi police. Another one hundred meters past the Iraqi police was a military checkpoint, manned by United States Marines. The Marines checkpoint sat directly under an overpass for the Qadisiya Expressway. This checkpoint was one of the five that controlled vehicle access to what the world’s media popularly called Baghdad’s Green Zone.

The driver of the taxi slowed to a walking pace. He was still some two hundred meters away from the police checkpoint when he saw what he was looking for. About half way between the police checkpoint and himself was an old man leaning against the retaining wall that supported Al Fallujah Street, just prior to it joining the expressway at right angles. On the other side of the street were a series of shops and above the shops, flats that usually housed the shops owners and their families.

The old man that was leaning against the retaining wall had been waiting for some time, casually smoking and looking at a newspaper. On seeing the taxi, he pushed himself away from the wall, put the newspaper under his arm and walked across the pavement to his car. The old man, who knew he had positioned his car in just the spot that the taxi driver would want, got into his car and commenced to edge out of the parking spot.

The taxi came slowly to a halt just behind the old man’s car, and blocked the following traffic, allowing the old man to merge into the lane. Then the driver of the taxi moved into the vacant parking spot. The taxi driver took a deep breath and slowly let the breath out, trying to relax himself. He then looked around to check to see that there was no one, especially the police only a hundred meters away that were taking any interest in him. Satisfied, he reached under the dash board and found some loose wires. Taking the wires in his fingers, he tugged gently and was eventually rewarded with a small switching box, no larger than a packet of cigarettes, falling into his hand. The box was supported on both sides by thin, insulated electrical cables.

Looking at the box the driver could see the three small lights that showed the state of readiness for the device that the box controlled. Under the lights was a switch that had four functions. Off, On, Test and Activate. Turning the switch to ‘On’, he waited for the device to warm up. He then turned the switch to the ‘Test’ function. The light above appeared instantly. This indicated that the switch, and the connected device, was functional. He turned the switch back to ‘Off’. Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked up at the group of police at the checkpoint. He could see that they were engrossed in some discussion, and paying little attention to what was happening on the street. Then looking at his watch realized that he had only a few moments in which to complete his task. He hurriedly put the switchbox back under the console, making sure that the wires could not be seen from outside of the car. Leaving the keys in the ignition, he got out of the vehicle and without locking the door, casually walked away from the car and back along Al Fallujah Street, the way he had come.

Meanwhile inside the Green Zone sat three four-wheel-drive Land Rovers. The Green Zone was a supposedly safe area inside the city of Baghdad, and was under the control of the United States military. The Land Rovers were parked in a residential housing area that in the early part of 2004 was near to what the inhabitants of the Green Zone called ‘The Palace’, or more formally, the Embassy of the United States of America. All three vehicles had their drivers in place within the vehicles, patiently waiting. All the drivers were thinking the same thing, that this was their final week of their current tour in this Middle Eastern hell hole. All had earned a considerable amount of money as contractors for a Private Security Company, (PSC), which was contracted to the US Department of Defense (DOD).

For the drivers, each tour consisted of a three month rotation, with two months operational and one month on leave. Each operational month would earn a driver about fifteen thousand US dollars. The drivers knew that they would be fairly well off when they returned home to England. As they waited, each driver was planning how he would spend the money that he had earned.

Their mission that morning was to drive the eight kilometres to the Baghdad International Airport, the BIAP. There they would pick up some new clients that were being flown in by the Royal Air Force, and return the clients to their new residence within the Green Zone. The arrival time was to be 1100hrs, eleven o’clock in the morning. Each of the drivers knew though, that the arrival time was only a guesstimate. Since they were working in a war zone, which had inherent difficulties imposed by the insurgents, the chance of flights arriving on time was remote. Not that anyone cared, as it would mean a trip to the large US PX, or convenience store, that was at the airport, and a chance to purchase cheap goods like DVD’s and music CD’s that were more expensive in London.

Accompanying each of the drivers was a guard, also an expat from Britain, whose role it was to protect the vehicle and its occupants. And in command of the convoy a Team Leader, whose responsibility it was to ensure that the convoy got to the BIAP, and that they returned safely with their clients.

On Al Fallujah Street, a man dressed in a dark blue long sleeved jumper, blue jeans and new white sandshoes, sat at a small café opposite the Qadisiya Expressway overpass. He had been casually smoking and watching the vehicles travel down the street for some time. He appeared to be one of the many thousand recently displaced Iraqi soldiers that had become unemployed following the invasion by the Americans. With no work and nothing to do, many believed their only hope lay in the nation returning to Islam or alternatively, Batthist rule. The man in the blue jumper and jeans watched, with that casual interest of the bored, the driver getting out of the orange and white taxi, and walking away.

On finishing his cigarette, the man in blue got up, walked across the road, and around the taxi to the driver’s side. He glanced up and down the street, then opened the door, and got in. He adjusted the seat and internal mirror as best he could for his own comfort.

Reaching under the console he pulled out the small switchbox and carried out the same continuity test that the previous driver had done. Seeing that all was in order, he gently pulled more of the cabling out so that the box was able to sit on his leg. He turned the ignition of the car on, and as he sat waiting he began to chant phrases he had learnt in training.

Inside the Green Zone, the private security contractors were now ready to commence their move to the BIAP. On a command given by the team leader over the personal two way radios that all within the convoy carried, all three of the Land Rovers moved off in unison. At the end of the street they turned left, and then left again. This brought them out onto Arbataash Tamuz, or Fourteenth July Street. Crossing the road and turning left the convoy drove south along the street towards the Fourteenth July Monument, commonly called the Four Soldiers, which sat in the centre of a large roundabout. At the roundabout they turned right, and followed the road that would take them out of the Green Zone and towards the BIAP.

The small convoy had about two kilometers to travel before they came to one of the Green Zone’s exit checkpoints. On their right, they passed an area of home units that housed local Iraqi civilians, most of whom worked for the US forces within the Green Zone. There were also a number of new restaurants that had recently opened. On the left side were some barracks that housed parts of the US forces.

As the convoy came to the exit checkpoint, the occupants of the convoy moved into alert positions. The guards lowering themselves down behind the vehicle’s dashboard trying to give themselves as much protection as possible, with weapons at the ready. The drivers attempted to do the same, but with less success.

On Al Fallujah Street the new driver of the taxi slowly edged away from his parking spot and commenced driving towards the checkpoint.

Before the coming of the Americans a driver traveling south on Al Fallujah Street would have had one of two choices to make as they came to the overpass. Either go under the Expressway, or turn right to take the entry ramp that led onto the Expressway and out to the airport. With the creation of the Green Zone, and the placement of the checkpoint directly under the overpass, most traffic now turned right onto the entry ramp. This was the route the taxi took.

With the driver of the taxi coming towards the checkpoint, and the private security convoy coming out of the checkpoint, both cars appeared to be on a collision course. It was only at the last moment that the lead Land Rover veered left, whilst the taxi turned right, that they avoided collision. Both vehicles then made their way side by side up the entry ramp. The driver of the taxi smiled to himself and chanted louder. He knew he had done it right.

As the lead vehicle of the Land Rover convoy came out from under the overpass, the driver started to accelerate to the normal convoy speed of one hundred and twenty kilometers an hour. Looking past his partner to his right, he had seen the taxi coming from the opposite way turn and preparing to merge.

Typical Iraqi driver both men said simultaneously.

The driver added, The bastard’s not even looking at us. Just singing to himself.

With that, the driver of the Land Rover veered to his right to check the merging taxi. The idea of the maneuver was to stall the taxi long enough so as to allow the rest of the convoy time to get away from the checkpoint and gather speed. As the two vehicles came side by side the driver of the taxi looked up at the driver and guard of the Land Rover. The guard and the taxi driver made eye contact. The taxi driver smiled.

It was the last thing any of them ever did.

CHAPTER TWO

Brian had been waiting for some time, and even though it was still early morning the temperature was beginning to rise. He had ordered his class to be on parade at 0800hrs, dressed in their normal fatigues and to be prepared for anything. He had not told them why, and if he was perfectly honest, he wasn’t sure himself. Last night the camp commandant had told him that his class was to be ready to provide demonstrations of their current skills. Brian was confident in his group, which he had been training for nearly a year, and felt that they were almost ready for deployment.

Brian had been involved in training of small groups for many years now. His last assignment was inside Iraq. But with the coming of the Americans he had had to move to this camp within Iran. Brian admitted to himself that professionally, he much preferred his previous position. That particular assignment had allowed him to utilise all his professional talents and knowledge for instruction. His role had been to create freedom fighters that could be utilized in a variety of working assignments throughout the world. That training course included curriculum subjects like languages, weapons, western culture, covert operations, and small group tactics, and for the leaders, guerrilla strategies. He had been given two years to mold his students into covert operatives. The training had been broad in nature because his students might be utilized in a variety of ways. From leading an attack on a convoy in Bosnia, to working for an airline as a pilot in America, or taking on a cleaners role for a government contracted company in the United Kingdom.

On a personal level he had enjoyed his last assignment as well. He had been able to get a sense of great achievement and personal worth out of what he had been assigned to do. The opportunity had come at a time during the late eighties for reasons of personal safety he had found it necessary to leave Europe. His activities against the British in Ireland had led him to become too well known. On several occasions British soldiers had tried to capture him. Through a contact with a friend from the al Qaeda organization, he was able to secure the position in Iraq. At the time there had been no mention of his religious leanings, he was there to do a specific job. Over time though, he had found himself greatly influenced by the personal beliefs of those around him. For instance, he had found that Islam’s approach to the individual’s personal discipline appealed to him. Brian could admit to himself that he had been subtly affected by the requirement of allowing his students to pray five times per day. At first he had not given much thought to their goal, however, over time he had found that he was also thinking of God during those times that his students were at prayer. In fact, since he was continually considering when the call to prayer was to be made, he was probably thinking about God more than the students. With time he had converted to the Islamic faith, and had come to find a peace within himself that he had failed to achieve through Catholicism.

His last role was also satisfying in that although he had no rank within the Iraqi military system, he did have the respect of the Iraqi officers, which he frequently came across in his training role. On numerous occasions his Iraqi liaison officer, who was the younger brother of the Commandant in charge of the camp, had taken him out for entertainment. They had utilized the training facility that had been developed for students. Effectively a small town had been built within the training area that operated as any small town in the United States would. Night clubs, pubs, female company and several stores that sold western clothing and apparel. The course used the area to familiarize students with the values of western culture. This would enable them to fit more readily into their covert assignments. Brian and the other officers were quite happy to make use of the facilities and the personnel who worked there, for entertainment.

This new role in Iran was not like that. Here he had found the fundamentalist view of Islam much more prevalent. Here, unlike Iraq, he had found that the more senior an officer was the more fundamentalist in his belief. In Iraq, seniority was gained in the closeness one had to Saddam Hussein’s tribe, the al Tikriti. Here in Iran, it was the closeness one had with God.

Professionally this role was also different. With the Americans so called ‘War on Terrorism’, the overall strategy utilized by the freedom fighters of the Middle East had to be changed. They had found the opportunity to insert long term operatives into western countries had diminished. With many of the target countries implementing security measures designed to identify persons of interest, organizations like the one he was currently working for had to rely on pre-existing cells that were already in place.

To counter the Americans ‘War on Terror’, freedom fighters had changed their training strategies. The training that now took place was much more specific, with training camps specializing in particular forms of attack techniques. For instance, Brian knew that there were camps where training only included assassination techniques, rioting and suicide attacks. An advantage of this decentralization was that the freedom fighters were able to be deployed much more readily. The overall strategy was that these operatives would be inserted into the target countries and be supported by those already trained and in place within those countries. The inserted operatives would carry out the allocated attacks, and then return to home base. This decentralization also made it harder for the Americans and British to locate camps and attack them.

The camp that Brian was teaching at was located in the western mountains of Iran, not far from the town of Sanandaj, in the province of Kordestan. Its specialization was rural and urban ambushing tactics. Brian had been selected to be the head instructor