NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: I got a telegram from Nova Gual telling me a myriad of brand new news to me, which I still don't completely understand. Mauretania was signed over to Madrid? I have three new battleships?? And well, the Algerian invasion I'm up to date on, now. In any case, this was originally only for the topic of the renewed Moroccan offensive on the Saharawi, but I guess I'll dedicate it to all happenings in Western Africa that has to do with Spain; to keep it out of the Dark Continent thread, which seems full enough.]

The Western Sahara

Lt. Mohammed Al'koras
His cruddy propellor driver reconaissance aircraft bounced up and down in the mild low altitude turbulence which enshrouded the Saharan landscape this early in the morning. The plane was small, camoflauged in desert colors with very dark biege stains sporadically thrown upon the steel, and the propellor on the nose was rusting - although one couldn't tell the difference when it was turning so fast. But, it was Lt. Al'karas' baby, and he had been flying it for over two years. He made certain faces when the steel frame creaked around him, but for the most part he was already very used to it. He had been attached to the Spanish Desert Expeditionary Corps [SPADEC] about a week past and the SPaniards had taken quite a bit of liberties with his aircraft. It boasted an all new global positioning system, which hooked into any Holy League satellite over the current hemisphere. With this he could position Saharawi targets for Spanish artillery batteries and close air strkes. However, they had no thought it opportune to change the rusting propellor!

He turned the wheel, which looked like something stolen from a Formula 1 car, and banked left, headng south. He still had seen nothing and his fuel was running precariously low. Mohammed looked at the red fuel gauge, which was collecting quite a bit of dust, and scowled. It was just over half full and he needed at least a tenth of the fuel to reach one of the foward airfields. He scanned the horizon and muttered, "Where are you?"

Suddenly, a black spot sparkled about eleven kilometers southwest of his position. He vectored himself towards that area and prepared to transmit the position to SPADEC headquarters. He thought about it for a while and decided not to, knowing that the hypocritical Spaniards would not pay him if he transmitted a bad target. Bad targets ranged from a false coordinate - in other words, if it wasn't even there -, to subjects who were not worth the shells. Therefore, Lt. Al'Karas'slowly moved in towards what he saw. He approached and finally saw the outline of an anti-air battery.

"Shit."

The 76.2mm gun - an antique from the Spanish Civil War and Second World War - opened fire at around two thousand meters, completely missing the nose of the plane. But when Mohammed banked, the surface area he presented quickly grew ... by a lot. Shrapnel pierced through the steel seperating him from air and tore through the fuselage, but the lieutenant didn't think about that just yet. Better to crash and land as far away as possible, then to be caught by Saharawi rebels. He had known too many pilots who had never returned home. He could still hear the 'pom-pom-pom' of the 76.2mm gun firing off in the distance, but he was too far away for that gun to hit him; it was far too old to have sufficient range!

But he had a brand new problem. His fuel gauge was decreasing, and fast! Gritting his teeth he slowly decreased altitude and electronically declared "may-day" and prepared for a crash landing. He wasn't going to make it back home. Lifting the nose, the back landing gear touched sand hard! The plane shook as if it was in an earthquake and like a magnet the foward landing gear hit Earth. Al'karas' hands were thrown off the wheel and he could no longer control the aircraft. Thirty seconds seemed twice as much as an eternity, but it finally stopped. As the plane quieted down Al'karas just sat there, and he continued to do so in a much peculiar way for a long while. Finally, he moved to take off his helm, and then lifted himself from the suction seat. Before jumping down he checked his left hip to see if his sidearm was still there. Check. He then reached down to grab his Ak-47 and he proceeded to jump overboard. Check.

The recce aircraft was destroyed. The nose had been crunched inwards, leaving only a couple of centimeters between the instrument panel and the propellor. The latter had various blades chopped off - Al'karas supposed now Spain would have to replace it! One wing was bent upwards and the other was blunted inwards. The pain job was ruined and now it was the color of sand and steel. Al'karas almsot started crying when he saw his baby lke this, but he thought of other things - like about the fast moving convoy coming towards him.


Col. Jamal Tikrit, Saharawi Liberation Army
The sun glared on the corner of his dark Rayban aviator sunglasses, as his biege Land Rover jumped through the desert. He wasn't armed, except for the Soviet manufactured pistol strapped to his sides. His face had the expression of a forest rock - meaning none at all -, and it there was a bubble isolating him from the minions around him, infront of him and behind him. There were at least twenty Sahrawi fighters arrayed in no less than five Land Rovers. Quite a patrol party, once you thought about it. None of them sweated. All of them had been fighting for a tleast four years, and they all knew combat. The colonel was a hero. He had been fighting since 1973. He had seen the Spanish retreat, and he had suffered from the Mauretanian invasion first, and then the Moroccan invasion various times. It seemed that he wouldn't stop until his land was liberated. His men only knew him in his light brown fatigues, dark black shades, and black beret. His muscularity was his royal emblem. Even on UN secretary of the state had called him, in private, "On bad motherfucker."

A soldier in his car suddenly yelled something out and pointed towards the crushed aircraft ahead of them, just west of the dune. Colonel Tikrit put up his fist and the convoy stopped. He gave orders out quickly, "You!" His use of the vocative was especially hars this time. "Continue west and look for strays." The jeep accelerated and Jamal finished, "Encircle him."


Lt. Mohammed Al'Karas, Moroccan Royal Airforce
Mohammed struggled to think about what to do. He had never been in such a situation before. They were going too fast! Al'karas rolled his eyes and threw his Ak-47 on the ground and put his arms up - international symbol of surrender. The four vehicles encircled him and then quickly unloaded. Guntotting individuals, some waring sandals and others wearing boots, approached him and the lieutenant began to get very nervous. One man, wearing American sunglasses, outstretched his right arm and said, "Welcome to the Sahara." Mohammed put down his arms, eyeing the Ak-47s which were pointed at him, and shook the man's hand. The guy smiled and continued, "I am Colonel Jamal Tikrit of the Polisario Army. You are airforce, am I right?"

Al'karas did not speak. He hoped. Hoped that the Spaniards came fast. The colonel didn't seem to lose patience, however, "Did the Spaniards tell you to stay quiet?" Al-karas said nothing. "How long will it take them to arrive? Ten? Twenty minutes? You may be dead in two, my friend. Maybe not. I suggest you speak." The Moroccan remained quiet. Tikirt sighed and nodded to one of his cronies. The man came, reversed his rifle, and broke Al'karas' nose with the wooden butt.

Mohammed yelled in pain, "Son of a bitch!" His nose began to clog with blood, and he almost lost oxygen as it swelled. "Fuck you all! You will kill me anyways!" He scowled at Colonel Tikrit and then added, "I may die today, but you all will be dead tomorrow."

Tikrit's eyes widened in amusement, and he chuckled. His face returned expressionless and he drew his pistol and united barrel with forehead, saying, "So, it begins tomorrow? Or, did you say that to scare me? Or, are you talking out of your ass? Yes, I believe it's the latter. No, boys? No, fuck you!" He pulled back the hammer, and would have pulled the trigger had not two F.1 aircraft zoomed behind him and six explosions rocked the base which the colonel had come from. "Did you call that? Why? Why harm your Arab brothers? Just to make your Christian master happy? Yes. Yes, fuck you."

Fortunately for the aviator the colonel's second attempt to kill him was interrupted by the 'swoosh-swoosh-swoosh' of various helicopters. The Mangustas had arrived. The three attack helicopters appeared over the sand dunes, their machine guns menancingly pointed towards the group. No one cared about the betrayal of Arab blood any longer. Mohammed felt the cold steel of the gun barrel quickly lift away from his body and he felt his chance to run. He wasn't used to all this 'blink of an eye' stuff, and his feet were firmly anchored to the ground. All the while the Mangusta pack inched foward. The Moroccan's eyes darted back and forth, and he saw Colonel Tikrit walk towards his jeep. This was it! Al'karas made a run for it. Just that second the Mangustas opened fire, but before it was all over Mohammed felt a pain in his leg and his knee buckled.

After he had fallen face first into the sand, he made sure to turn around. Everyone was dead, or faking it really, really well. He took a look at his leg and saw the wound. It was a pistol round. The helicopter would have cut his legs straight off - so he was happy, at least, for that. Thank God. They approached him, the gushing currents of win coming off the rotor's blades hitting Mohammed in the center of his face. But he no longer cared ... he had been saved. His enemies, however, had not, and very soon there would be more to die.


Northern SADR
The invasion of the SADR in the north was done in tandem with the beginning of Moroccan operations in the south. Morocco would swiftly cut off Polisario access to the Atlantic Ocean, and then push them up against Mauretania. Since Mauretania had suddenly been signed over to Spain the Moroccans had orders to pursue them into that country, and kill them all if necessary. The invasion of the north had begun with a brutal twenty minute bombardment of targets caught by reconassaice - whether from aircraft, or from satellite. This had been done simultanuously with the constant air strikes over the Polisario, and then had been followed by four columns quickly moving in to take the SADR by suprise and overwhelm the defenders and push them into Algeria - or kill them. Two columns were composed of the two infantry regiments, while the armoured brigade had been split up to provide mechanized spearheads for both of these columns. This, mixed with close air support from the Mangustas and F.1s provided with a very quick assault over Polisario territory. Whatever did not move out of the way or surrender was quickly ran over and destroyed. Polisario T-54s and T-55s attempting to make a stand were knocked out from ranges exceeding six thousand meters. It was nothing more than a slaughter. Spanish elite mechanization simply overwhelmed any conventional resistance the Polisario could put up against them. It was an unfair fight.

The Spanish onslaught reached the two major cities of the area by the day's evening. Some tanks had broken down along the way, but the two advances didn't stop - they simply kept some units back there for protection until a combat engineering vehicle could fix it, and then it would return to the advance. By nightfall the Spaniards had fully occupied the area and the cities, using Mangustas and reconaissance vehicles to continue to patrol at night and kill anything that they saw. For almost twenty-four hours the 155mm batteries did not fall silent, bombarding Saharawi positions and making sure that by the next day most of them were dead. The Spaniards would not stay here for much time. They would remain here for the night and for much of the next day, taking care of as much as possible to hand it over to Moroccan security units, but they had to advance south into Mauretania quickly.

This was a different case altogether. When France had signed the country over to Spain, the decision on how to receive it was hectic. Finally, the original Tercio [the original foreign legion] was chosen to make their way over to Tangiers, where they would be flied over to Mauretania and they would have to find out how to occupy it. They would start from the capital, Nouakchott, and then move out in battalion sized units to occupy the other major cities. Within two or three days they would be reinforced by the two infantry regiments operating in Morocco, but that was still not enough. The armour would have to go back to Spain. All in all, then, there would be roughly twelve thousand men occupying a huge African nation, with no hopes of more men making it down any time soon. Spain would have to land the same armoured brigade and two mechanized infantry divisions in Algiers to help their French allies there. The situation in Africa did not look good, and it seemed that the French landgrab had simply worked to overextend their armies and the armies of their allies. But, this would be dealt with later - the one obvious thing now was that Spain was not going to stay in Mauretania for long.

In any case, most of the Polisario fighters disintigrated in the cities, or hopped into Algeria, where they were pursued by integrated recce patrol groups, and then killed. The leadership was decapitated - most of them were simply brought out of their homes and shot. Spanish tanks derumbated entire buildings. The Polisario had suffered a total defeat, and the repurcussions of this [unconventional warfare] would have to be felt by Morocco, not Spain...

OOC: Mac, there is an RP player for the Sahawari. Give him a chance to respond before you make any declaration.

[OOC: Er, yes, rather.

A few points...

It ought be remembered that the SADR has been recieving renewed military assistance since at least the French takeover in Algeria, and this has been complemented more recently with substantial aid from the Armandian Combine. Together, these have seen Polisario forces equipped with a respectable array of ATGMs and surface-to-air missiles, as well as various small arms from across the Progressive world and some pieces of heavier equipment. They are a guerilla movement, true, and they certainly lack modern battle tank brigades, but they are far more potent than seems to have been assumed above.

The civil populace of the SADR is concentrated in Bir Lahlou, with smaller settlements in Tifariti and across the border in Ain Ben Tili, and nomadic groups scattered here and there across the desert. Within these settlements, life has become highly militarized since expulsion from Algeria and earlier agression from Morocco, which may in fact make civilian casualties more easily justifiable as older weapons (AK-47s, mostly, as well as older arms) were transferred down to youth and women's defence brigades when the Polisario recieved newer Progressive guns... however, targeting individual military points in the settlements will be most difficult. There is a general shortage of buildings, which has seen existing structures take on dual civilian and military purposes, while many inhabitants dwell in ordered tents. Amongst both, little has been done to differentiate between dwellings of civilians, Polisario, and foreign aid workers. The latter are probably the only real concern for an attacker, as while present circumstances render Hindustani or Combine advisors fair game, a substantial number of foreigners are aid workers from USQ Christian aid groups.

Erm, finally, I'm not really sure where to reply... there are various posts across a couple of threads involving preparations and assaults on the SADR.
As crowded as it may seem, I think this would be better placed within the 'Dark Continent' thread, if only because theatre assets may end up crossing between the various fronts of northern and western Africa, and because relative timing of maneuvers/battles/victories in the various areas will have an impact on how events in the other regions unfold.]

[OOC: Well, you have to wait for Morocco to reply, in any case, and that will most likely come Saturday or Sunday. He's launching a simultanuous invasion in the southern regions of the Western Sahara with a much larger force - so I make some assumptions, given the lack of response in the Moroccan thread about Spanish/Moroccan preperations ... the posts of which have been up since the beginning of the week, or even before - I can't remember. The main assumption is that the brute force of the SADR is going to be to the south, given that the principle threat is Morocco, not Spain, in respect to size of army. Furthermore, it would make sense, given that the SADR have a better chance of stopping Morocco than they do Spain, even with the massive disparity in numbers between the two allies. Furthermore, I make the assumption that I can launch a suprise attack - given the short distance between the front and Algeria, I don't think it would be too hard to simply plow through conventional resistance and reach the principle cities in the north. I would understand that there would be considerable Polisario strength left after that - I shouldn't have said that 'most' were killed or driven out. But I wouldn't understand that the Polisario have the ability to put up a fight out in the open, given the heavy close air support from both helicopter units and older air attack aircraft, as well as tactical artillery support for both infantry regiments and the armoured brigade.

In other words, I'd expect something along the lines of Iraq, where the conventional forces were brushed away, but the truth of the matter is that they really weren't. That is exactly the reason why Spanish forces are leaving withing days, simply allowing the Moroccans to deal with the subsequent problem. In the end it's probably just going to end up being a simple genocide.

Regardless, I'd like to keep the roleplay here, given that this has nothing to do with French Algeria and more to do with Spanish politics in West Africa, which I want to keep as a seperate topic altogether. Spain doesn't support all French programs in Africa recently, despite the remnant close alliance between the two nations. I rather keep Spanish politics seperate from French politics, at this point, although Morocco is probably going to taint Spanish reputation with the genocide - but, this offensive against the Saharawi was launched prior to me knowing that Mauretania was suddenly Spanish [and I don't plan to keep Mauretania, however]. The offensive was originally planned to free up the Moroccan military for a grand offensive into West Africa which would dislodge Socialist influences and probably kill millions - but this was seen as a good trade off. At the current point this is no longer needed, given that Mauretania is now mine [not that I'm going to commit genocide; but now three countries/regions in Western Africa are going to be flooded by Spanish industry and companies, with plans to expand infrastructure at the cost of human labour].

In any case, I rushed the invasion part since I wrote the first part in class, and the second part when I was running out of time. If you tell me how you plan to make your resistance [in a nutshell] I'll re-write that part of the RP so that I know when to stop, et cetera. Tactics will remain the same.]

[Tag! And some OOC, sorry.

Hey, Spyr, I've clearly not been keeping enough records, or even thinking enough about NS, so I'm going to have to ask a slightly embarrasing question, from the leader of a nation: Have you guys seen our army?

Hehe, I mean, by that, did the UAR send some sort of expedition to the SADR? Or did I dream that/was that before we revised history in the area/what am I talking about? I've been skimming through Word documents in hope of finding reference to the UAR's past positions regarding the Saharawi, but I'm coming up rather short.]

[OOC: Arg, I'm trying to remember the details of the deployment. I know it was done by air, without much in the way of heavy equipment. The number '2,000' comes to mind, but there have been so many bloody deployments across AMW since then that I may just be remembering something else entirely. If the UAR hasn't withdrawn them since then, Polisario would probably have tried to have them deployed in the south to supplement the Saharawi holding the narrow corridor that connects them to the coast, as aid shipments must come either through there or from Mauretanian airfields.

I'll wait for Morocco before replying, in any event, so I don't muddle things up. It'll also give a chance to check where everything was last deployed.

I am wondering, though, about the thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=496351) concerning in-fighting in Rabat... just what happened to that?].

OOC: That will be irrelevant soon enough, being as they forgot to bribe the RMAF. XD

EDIT, Saharwi, are you going to respond to the Moroccan Armoured Units moving into your strip of land that gives you access to the sea?

[OOC: I'll post the first deployment of Armandian naval vessels later today, but I'll just make note here that I'm not going to let the Sahawari down.]

[OOC: Since we seem to be doing things here, could you re-post your attack in this thread so I can keep my fronts straight?

I may not be able to get a reply up tomrrow, but certainly by Tuesday.

AC, could you TG me on just what heavier equipment you transferred to the Saharawi?].

Liberated Territories, Western Sahara

The Saharawi were a people used to war, and recent years had only intensified their militarization under Polisario leadership. In small oasis towns and the larger northern settlements, women and young boys carried assault rifles as they went about their daily chores, awaiting the signal that would see them join their local defense brigades to repulse an inevitable Moroccan assault. Scattered amongst them, the veterans of the Frente Polisario kept careful watch upon the berm, and the empty lands they called home,

When news of military unrest in Rabat had reached the Saharawi, they had embarked upon a psychological campaign against the Moroccan garrisons upon the berm... older unreliable ordnance, and rifle fire from weapons for which ammunition supplies dwindled, had been expended against the walls of the berm fortifications to rattle those encased within, joined by loudspeakers and radio transmitters which called upon the Moroccans to return home and leave the Western Sahara... an attempt to unsettle the entrenched enemy, to weaken his morale, in the hope that he might be provoked to either retreat or expose himself. Like the rebellion in Rabat, the attempt was short-lived, for soon after the tell-tale clouds of moving vehicles exposed enemy intent to advance.

In the eyes of many Saharawi, this was an opportunity not to be missed, a return to the time when they ruled the desert from southern Morocco to northern Mauritania, while the Moroccans cowered in the cities and searched futilely for an enemy that could melt away in minutes. The Saharawi leadership knew that their methods of desert warfare would not be so effective now as they had once been, but the goal could not be to bring about the defeat of the Moroccans on their own... the enemy was too great, the Saharawi too few. But Libya, joined by Hindustan and Beth Gellert, now prepared to march upon Algeria, and the Armandian Combine had risen to directly champion their cause. The Saharawi need only hold long enough to see the Algerian republic restored, to see the Persians arrive beneath their black banners, and then victory would be at hand.

Occupied Territories, Western Sahara

The Saharawi population in the Occupied Territories had been restless since the previous Moroccan attempt to advance from the berm... protests were common, vandalism and pro-Saharawi graffiti a regular sight in most communities. As Spanish and Moroccan troops moved through the Territories to muster at the berm, these protests began to intensify. Rocks and broken bottles were hurled at military patrols, and amateur attempts at sabotage became common along the vital phosphate conveyor as well as at military facilities located near settlements. Almost none of the Saharawi in the Occupied territories had access to firearms, but what they lacked in military power they tried to make up for with the volume of their shouting.

Southern SADR

Moroccan units leaving the berm quickly come under fire from Saharawi bearing Libyan- and Combine-supplied RPG-29s, who concentrate their initial volleys on vehicles bearing obvious mine-clearing equipment... as vehicles move out beyond small arms range of the berm, these rounds are joined by small arms and RPG-7 fire from the rocky outcrops scattered about the terrain. Occasionally a light mortar adds its ordnance to the fray, though heavier artillery has not been positioned this close to the berm for fear of counterbattery fire.

Northern SADR

[OOC: How did the Spanish cross the minefields west of the Berm?]

Spanish advances against the Polisario encounter little in the way of heavy equipment or emplacements to bombard, save for the few towns amongst which the Saharawi population is scattered. Their columns likewise encounter few tanks save those already immobilized by mechanical failure... under Armandian advice, Polisario equipment had been consolidating to probe the berm, leaving it sitting impotently many kilometres distant from either enemy thrust. The Spanish do encounter, however, large numbers of scattered infantry groups with all manner of anti-tank weapons, from the relatively weak RPG-7 to the more potent RPG-29, as well as Hindustani-supplied ATGMs. These, along with rifle patrols, generally avoid engaging enemy columns until their positions have already been passed, firing into the side or rear armour of enemy vehicles from concealed positions before retreating as fast as they can manage. Most groups without anti-tank munitions wait until infantry and lighter vehicles are sighted before opening fire with small arms and heavier machine guns... though some over-eager young men make the fatal error of taking on tanks with their AKMs and makeshift grenades.

In zones which have not been passed over by Spanish columns, scattered defenders begin careful movement in pursuit, hoping to catch the enemy once their forward elements are immobilized in the settlements. Any Spanish vehicles and crews left behind due to mechanical failures become easy targets, if the Polisario are lucky enough to locate them, as are engineering and supply vehicles lagging behind offensive forces.

Occupation of the cities is not an easy affair... as they are the only real target for bombardment, what can be left of their mud huts and tin roofs than rubble once the Spanish arrive? The numbers of dead and wounded are substantial, but resistance to Spanish approaches comes in the form of small-arms fire from nearly every boulder and half-collapsed wall, as youth and women's defence brigades join the Polisario. Whatever one's qualitative advantage, one does not simply waltz into a hostile city without its inhabitants first making known just how unwelcome is your arrival.
Trucks loaded with the wounded attempt to depart the cities for the rearward camp in northern Mauritania, hoping against hope that there they might find a brief respite.

[OOC: Intentionally vague on air defences... aside from the anti-tank munitions and heavier machine guns, which would be used against opportune targets amongst low-flying helicopters or aircraft, there are some modern MANPADS in Polisario hands... I need to confer with the Combine on transfers of such equipment, which Polisario was eager for, but if not numeroust than those supplied by Hindustan will be little more than a shock to a first-wave pilot or two before they run out of ammunition].

Washington, London, Raleigh, Tripoli, etc...

In capitals across the world, Saharawi representatives (or the foreigners who champion their cause) call upon the world for succour. This invasion is just another atrocity in a long list of crimes perpetrated by Spanish and Moroccan occupiers of the Western Sahara, against a people who already suffer shortages of food and water. The world cannot stand by and allow this horror to be perpetrated... Morocco must be forced to cease its attempts at genocide immediately, and must be required to withdraw from the Western Sahara so that the Saharawi people can be free to excercise their right to self-determination.

The nations of the world are begged to aid the Saharawi in their struggle for freedom and survival.

London

The feeble vanguard rays of a British summer, embraced with enthusiasm by a suddenly half-naked wartime public, dazzled the eye against a diplomatic winter in Whitehall.

The Whig Party, which had recalled troops from Strathdonia to effect a sort of post-election coup against the opposition that for several years appeased the hated French, was feeling very lonely. Prime Minister Mainwaring generally ignored allegations that he was too left wing, some kind of socialist, pausing only to address the unions every once in a while and glad to have stolen them from the miserable PR failure that was New Labour. It suited him that people saw his nationalisation drives as revolutionary rather than... anything else.

Recently, the British Empire; such as it was these days, reduced to the British and Wendsleybury islands and minor outposts in this ocean and that; had been enduring a miserable time on the diplomatic circuit. Accused of radical leftism, London was still no keener than ever before to associate itself with Sithin, Raipur, Constance, or the other revolutionary hubs around the world.
But the British saw their Roycelandian cousins supplying the enemy and imperialising without even a moment's thought for strategy or propaganda; the Quinntonian child had grown-up and now seemed to be two steps ahead of his parents, getting into fights and following trends that the older generation couldn't understand; and the Germans... why did we ever trust the Germans? Mainwaring was insisting that he'd known all along, of course.

And United Elias appeared to be dying, or something, making no attempt to protect its political and economic interests as sea-lanes shut down and petrochemical sources and markets were divided by war. With that in mind, there was nothing for it.

Once again, British schools found themselves lumbered with out dated textbooks: there was a new country on the map.

Britain recognises SADR

Previously restrained by a desire to avoid upsetting Baghdad, London's hand was made free by Rabat's turn towards the Holy League powers. Now, instead of all the oil in the Middle East, the only thing to discourage British military involvement in this part of Africa was the military strength of a developing country and the powers with which the Empire was already at war.

Four fleet aircraft carriers, a battleship, twenty-six frigates, twenty destroyers, and a couple of nuclear submarines, plus ships of the Fleet Auxiliary, and more than a hundred and fifty ready strike-fighters (accounting for losses) under the distinguished Admiral Longworth. This was the British fleet within range of the Western Sahara, and from here the Empire asked of the Polisario, "What do you need?".

It was, of course, explained that Britain had worries of her own, and may not be able to oblige fully and immediately if the answer were, "an invasion of Spain" but, it seemed likely, the Western Sahara might be this war's North African campaign against a fortified Europe.

In Britain, skirts and filters were being fitted to Challenger tanks hung with wet paint signs, and investigations were being made into the effective range of the L85 assault rifle versus the SLR battle rifle.

Lilongwe was contacted about the possibility of contributing fighting men to a campaign that might be fought at slightly greater than typical British temperature.

[OOC: I'll deal with casualties to mines in my post; I'm guessing that my units would run into them. The armour that gets a track popped off would have to be dislodged and quickly fixed up in foward repair camps, and they would probably only rejoin the battle when there were enough to join in force. Otherwise, I'd have Leopard CEV variants and Leopard 2Es with scorpions attached to their chassis lugs to plough through minefields as quickly as possible, I guess.]

The Spanish Advance
The offensive had been more expensive than originally envisioned. At least thirteen tanks had been temporarilly removed from the frontlines due to losses to mines when crossing the berm. Throughout the day there had been other losses. There were at least seventy infantry dead, the first day, with three times the wounded. About one fourth of the wounded are irrevocable losses, while half of the rest can rejoin combat with the armour the next day and the rest have to be airlifted to Ceuta, where they would be ferried to Algeciras, in Spain. Vehicle losses have also been heavy. No less than eight Leopard 2Es have been knocked out completely by the powerful RPG-29 penetrating through the thinner rear and side armours, although these have all been towed back to camp, and at least another ten have to be repaired, with only two hoping to make it back to the fight the next day. The other eight would have to be sent to Spain for extentful repairing. However, Madrid is prepared to resupply the losses, although news has already begun to circulate that SPADEC is returning to the mainland as soon as possible - which means in less than a week. Already, at least four Moroccan infantry brigades, acting as security brigades with almost next to no training, are beginning to replace Spanish forces and begin to clear out circumvented pockets of Saharawi fighters, along with the better trained Spanish mechanized infantry regiments.

The logistics arms of the invasion have also been badly hit. Various trucks, especially those that were lent to Spain by Morocco, have been knocked out. The extent of the damage done to the flimsy supply lines means that sometimes lead spearheads even stop, and have to be resupplied by Moroccan and Spanish transport aircraft - all of which are small. The Saharawi ability to pinpoint supply convoys has led SPADEC to change the supply policies to huge convoys taking more than enough materials, and protected by tanks that were undergoing repair. This plan begins almost immediate institution about six or seven hours into the offensive, at first with small amounts of armour and infantry but progressively increasing. Nevertheless, the loss may certainly work to lengthening the amount of time SPADEC remains in North Africa.

Nevertheless, the campaigns into Northern SADR remain brutal, with the Spaniards keeping up the pace and killing anything that is armed with a gun. The armour, however, has been turned away from the cities and instead lend their light tank variants of the Pizarro IFV for infantry support, and to allow reconaissance units to dismount. The armour instead is being redeployed to protect supply convoys and also reorganized into small teams designed to scour the deserts of the northern SADR and eliminate the pockets of resistance bypassed by both the armoured spearheads and the infantry.

In a strange turn of events, however, and probably against the wishes of their allies, Spain has invited the surviving leadership of the SADR to Madrid to discuss the future of their country. Madrid has made it obvious that Spain is not looking foward to the Saharawi agreeing to an ultimatum. Madrid is also prepared to invite the Soviets, the Combine and the Indians. The allied powers may also come if they also wish to begin discussion on a possible peace to this war [although this part would have to be discussed in another thread, and would have to be seperate to keep some organization to all of this]. On the table in relation to the former list of nations [not the allies] is the topic of Mauretania, and Spain's wish to stabalize the country through an international force.

All the while F.1s keep up the pressure in SADR's northern 'cities'.

Lilongwe is certainly receptive to British requests and would dearly like to help the mother country and the Saharawi, particularly if it might mean a bite at the indsutrial cooperation cherry being offered to the INU (OOC: which reminds me, i need to talk to you with regards to the joint light fighter program).

But as with everything in this war where Strathdonia would like to take an interest the issue of logisitcs, so far Strathdonian help to the Saharawi has been little more thanmoral with a few transfers of cash and arms (most notably Milan ATGMs and Javelin SAMs) piggybacked into Hindustani shipments and the prospect of shifting anything bar light forces into the northern african theatre is an extremely distant one. Much of Strathdonia's naval power has already been assigned to the joint Hindustani/Commonwealth fleet while the rest of it is still udner goign acceptance trails of Austrialia. Despite this SCHQ has promised what help it can.

OOC: i am having problems keeping track of everything, part of the reason i am happy with Strathdonia is that any combat it would find itself part of would be some what limited so i will commit troops but it is unlikely i could commit more than a dragoon (uk "ready") divsion plus a regiment or two of light infantry, although if soem really needs a PAC-3 battery there is one packed up and ready to go.

Southern Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic

The Lusakan Revolutionary Alliance Corps' 1st Division considered itself the most prestigious military force in Africa, and the population of the United African Republics respected it as the second most prestigious. The 17th Division -currently deploying to Libya- had achieved fame as the Vultures, a guerrilla army able to smell Roycelandian blood before it had been spilled, to swoop in, and to pick at an armoured column until it was a bare skeleton, bleaching in the African sun. But the 1st Division was, well, the first division, and it was the rabble with which a young Derek Igomo fought, hobbling through the bush with a rifle that served as a crutch more often than a weapon.

That seemed a long time ago. Since then, the 1st had smashed Nyasaland's defences and fought a brutal retreat in the face of Rhodesian might and atrocity, and it had taken part in the defeat of the Al Khali Republican Guard. Most recently, the 1st Division LRAC organised resistance to the Tendyala junta while the 17th rallied support in West Zambia.

Lt.Col. Mwari, a former Vulture who fought at Chingola for the future of the Copperbelt, didn't much need to inspire his men, two thousand strong. They were basically aware that they had come to fight imperialists on some remote part of the African continent, which was certainly great, and also that the Indians might be around, which was generally considered to be a good thing. Rumour of Strathdonian involvement was typically greeted with a very Lusakan shrug and a che sara sara passivism. Time spent in the region until now was dedicated mostly to learning about the Polisario and life in the desert. Can I hide in the sand?.. What happens if I try to drive a Land Rover through this?.. Uh, have you ever been experienced?.. If I bury this here, how in the heck do I recognise this place, again?.. Do you want some dehydrated banana? Is that safe to drink?.. and other such questions would have been asked with annoying frequency.

Having nothing heavier than Land Rovers, the LRAC 1st Division was much inclined to get out of the way whenever possible, making a lot of noise and directing the output of vehicle-mounted 14.5x114mm KPV and 12.7x107mm M87 (Yugoslavian NSV) heavy machineguns and 7.62x54mm PKM general-purpose weapons towards anything hostile. They also had 51mm light mortars and heavier 81mm pieces on their variously-sourced cruisers -some British, some possibly Roycelandian, some Indian-, along with Susong-Po (Drapoel Maljutka-2) and shorter-range but far more deadly Yugoslavian Bumbar anti-tank missiles and Super-Sava MANPADS. They were towing some triple-barrel 20mm M-55 anti-aircraft guns with infrared imagers, while other vehicles pulled trailers full of supplies.

With two thousand men, the Lusakans were far from fully mechanised, and the Land Rovers made little pretence about staying with the infantry when the trouble started. In fact, the 1st Division appeared to break almost before the first shot was fired, scattering left and right. Often they moved in groups as small as eight infantry, or sometimes even a single vehicle. The invaders could chase them if they wanted. The Lusakans would run anywhere the Saharawi wanted them to go, but there was no assurance that they'd stay. Mostly, the vehicles headed east, though not exclusively so, and the infantry waited in the southern strip, always hoping to see a scout vehicle or some such soft target.

For now, there was no heavy attempt at engagement by the sub-Saharan Africans, who wanted to see what the enemy would do next. Then there'd probably be sniper-fire and rifle-grenades aplenty. The Lieutenant-Colonel could sometimes be seen roaming about in his Land Rover, sitting in the passenger seat with his leather shield wedged where a door might otherwise have been and his short spear pointing the driver this way and that, its deadly blade disguised by dirt and paste lest it reflect the sun and give him away from afar.

(OCC: Speaking of that, Strath, there's this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=471053&page=2) program update. And the K101 Unity...I'd imagine that HAL has started low-rate production of civil variants by now, eh?

I suppose its been long enough a wait, so...)

IC:

Dakar, Senegal

For Abdoulaye Wade, the past two weeks had been extremely trying. Between organizing Senegal's own national defense and supporting ECOMOG missions in Liberia and Cote D'Ivoire, Wade had watched as Benin and Togo fell in quick succession, and as Accra was firebombed with heavy loss of life. How much longer will Conakry and Dakar remain outside the range of French bombers? How much longer will Burkinabe and Malian forces hold out? They are questions that nobody in ECOWAS can presently answer, and once they are resolved, Senegal and Guinea will be under French guns. Although they have been acquitting themselves admirably, the armies of ECOWAS are also being destroyed left and right, the Ghanaian Army being the only force yet to have inflicted major casualties upon the invaders in an open engagement. With half of Accra's numbers, Senegal cannot hope for the same measure of success. Therefore, when he recieves word of Indian warships offshore, he is by no means upset.

Ironically, the port facilities that recieve the Indian warships are relics of the last period of French colonialism, and the site of France's only naval victory of the Second World War. They weren't quite intended to handle the numbers now present, though, so the only crews that get to stretch their legs on shore are those of the fleet's amphibious warfare ships and the various lighters employed in ferrying infantrymen to shore from overcrowded destroyers and frigates. INS Kaveri is the first IN warship to put-in, and ties up at a quayside once home to the French battleship Richelieu. Some 500 Marines, dressed in uniforms that would not be out of place in Borneo circa 1945, and carrying the INSAS-1, waddle down the gangplanks with their heavy packs while a pair of FV107 light tanks are plucked from the vehicle deck by port cranes. Soviet ships deposit their passengers at the same time, and the Kaveri waits a hundred meters behind for its turn at the dock. All the while, landing craft shuttle back and forth between the port and the fleet offshore, bringing infantrymen from three nations and the first of the Lusakan L-2 Olifant tanks to the land war in West Africa.

From what the Naval Planning Office can figure, Dakar is sufficiently distant from any major Spanish or French airbase as to render it largely invulnerable to most fighter-bombers, although a formation of French strategic bombers could likely make short work of the distance. Much of the French bomber force is believed to have been destroyed over Tripoli, enough to make it more or less impotent for some months, although if the Battle of the Madiera Islands teaches Unioners anything it is to not take their intelligence reports at face value. If the Naval Planning Office could underestimate battleship strength by as many as four hulls, how off could figures for the ODSE be? At least the bulk of the French navy is in port after its bloody engagement with the Australasians, and doubtless any attempted sortie will be greeted by Walmingtonian firepower. If that was not the case, the Indians would probably not spend all that long close to shore.

Admiral Ali Khan, or rather Ali Khan Marakkar, commander of the IN portion of the combined fleet, keeps track of the landing operations from his flagship, the destroyer Sadiqabad. While just barely larger than one of the Soviet frigates, and perhaps two decades older than several of them, Sadiqabad is without a doubt the most defensible warship in the Union flotilla, boasting a Type 40A AESA radar, one of only five sets in service. This is backed-up by 24 PAADS-2 SAMs in VLS tubes, weapons with a reach approaching 100km, and more than capable of downing a bomber apiece. The six other Type 42s present off Senegal are armed similarly, although fitted with pre-transfer Walmingtonian radars and therefore largely dependant on the Sadiqabad and Soviet frigates for long-range target acquisition. Khan Marakkar himself is considered a quite capable commander. After starting his service in 1955 aboard an IN C-class destroyer, Khan advanced to captain the vessel and then to command a flotilla of destroyers. This flotilla saw service in, besides the Indo-Bedgellen wars, the Drapoel Unification War and the Malacca War, before its elderly ships were decommissioned. Perhaps he doesn't have the same resources as the Frenchmen, but he has the experience that they very much lack. The same probably goes with the Soviet commanders, who likely had their first battles against the IN.

Northern Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic

It isn't every day that an INA gunner gets to test his cannon against a modern target, so Corporal Farooq Aman intends to make the best of the opportunity presented to him. The cannon, a towed variant of the 75/105mm antitank gun that the INA counts on when all other antitank measures fail, sits just behind a low rise, the top of the gun shield folded down to reduce its profile. The long barrel itself just barely pokes out from a small channel chipped into the ground, and is further obscured by a sheet of camoflauge netting. Some 2,000 meters away, a column of Spanish Leopards proceeds across the landscape, no doubt on the lookout for ambushes. Hopefully, with the wide proliferation of RPGs in the Polisario Front, their attention is focused closer rather than farther away. Corporal Aman watches the column intently, waiting for the first vehicle to cross the cannon's gunsight. At the velocity that its 75/105mm projectile will be going, leading the tanks won't be such a big problem, and either way an experienced artillerist like the Corporal shouldn't have much trouble with it. And if he aims true, it won't matter where he hits the Leopard. He wouldn't be surprised if the tank's turret comes clean off. So as the lead Leopard's main gun is halfway across his reticle, Aman squeezes the trigger. The gun crew does not wait around to observe the result of the shot, and within seconds they are speeding across the desert in a Unimog with the cannon in tow.

Southern Strip Engagement Zones
The comm was crackling with shouts of orders and messages as the armoured column was attacked from three sides by a motley collection of RPGs and ATGMs, two tanks were knocked out, both with wrecked tracks and were shunted to the side as the column pushed on, one of them was a lead tank, the column head formed into single file, passed the immobilised vehicle and then spread out again, utliising another bulldozed headed tank.
Maria swore at the sudden assault as she spun the turret around, ordering her loader to ram a High Explosive Shell into the breach, she turned the control of the turret over to the gunner and concentrated on trying to interpret the shouts over the radio. If they were following procedure they would even now be loading HE rounds into there 120mm Guns and swinging the turrets of there M60s around to target the outcroppings that were most likely to be concealing the enemy,
"Round Loaded" shouted the loader over the clank of the break closing. Now they had to wait for the order to fire. Then it came, half obscured by the other messages on the comm, "Fire!", Maria echoed the shout for the benefit of her gunner, who often didnt listen to the comm while he was working. He answered "Firing" and the gun made a loud boom, barely audible through her headset, followed by the clank as the gun recoiled and expelled the remains of the ammunition. "Load High Explosive!" she shouted to her loader as she used her optics to take a look at her target, which was invisible behind the dustcloud, that was slowly moving across the horizon as the tank column ground on, she looked at her top view parabolic optics and saw that several similar clouds had sprung up around her and that the RPG fire had dropped off considerably.
While this was happening, the Moroccans were preparing there greatest card, there artillery. Rounds were loaded into numerous towed one hundred and five milimetre howitzers, mostly crewed by men and women fresh from the artillery school in the Atlas mountains, they laid there guns with the squeeky accuracy expected of forces fresh to the front, they were targetting the desert around the assault points, they were loading air bursting napalm shells [they burst about 50ft up and spread the burning napalm over the target area], they would burn the Saharwi out into the open where the Armoured and the infantry could deal with them more easily. At the same time the armoured fired, so did the artillery, as did the numerous 81mm and 60mm Mortars attachd to the infantry, these targetting any known Saharwi posistions that were not being attacked by the artillery, they were using standard HE-Frag Rounds, they were cheap and plentiful after all.

(Wasn't too sure if this should go here or the other African thread, but LRR/TCB seems to have started things off here, so I'll go with it for now. Hope nobody minds.)

Dakar, Senegal

The Soviet contingent arriving in West Africa was far the larger part of the multinational fleet. At its head the brilliant new cruiser Ood, commanded by a Captain Binney who served aboard the quite different Principality era Ood and had to be reminded not to order fire against the Indian ensigns he saw dotted about the formidable array of warships and auxiliaries. The flagship's radars searched for hundreds of kilometres, almost desiring an imperialist response to the long-awaited approach of the Indians and Southern Africans, most of her silos loaded with CS-400 missiles of the navalised Red Sky system. Binney was joined on the bridge by a neighbour from the Commonwealth's south island, a Tamil who, as a pro-Commonwealth rebel, commanded an armed motor launch in the late '80s in attacks on Principality defences, and now bore the prestigious rank of Admiral and the difficult name Viknrix.

Viknrix had contacted officials in Senegal ahead of the fleet's arrival. Not exactly the officials one might expect, but members of the nation's large Socialist Party and of smaller left parties, subtly suggesting that a big welcome, especially one with a clear anti-imperialist statement, might be... nice. As the first ships were moving into port a Dhruv was dispatched from the light carrier CS Belinus, stuffed with flags. Many were red, some Senegalese, others a combination placing a small Senegalese banner upon a red field. A couple of Soviet Political Commissars wandered about through a population that was almost 50% unemployed and sought to drum-up interest in coming liberation by the Indians and the African socialists.

With landing craft from the Nibiru Class carriers Belinus, Kolokol, and Kronstadt bringing Indian, Tanzanian, Zimbabwean, and Zambian personnel ashore in groups of 150, the sound of singing could be heard along with the odd Carnyx blast. The Soviets were leading the chorus, others joining in or declining at their discretion. Nobody knew enough Wolof, but several French speakers, perhaps out of Pondicherry, had spent the long trip from Zanzibar teaching others the words they now sang.

Off shore, the Soviet defensive contribution was massive by African or European standards. But this was Asia finally bringing was back west, and the Commonwealth was hardly breaking a sweat. Fifteen Bodkin and twenty-five Gauntlet frigates fanned out across the horizon, Restoration Class submarine tenders indicating that a squadron of Anunkai fleet submarines was also in theatre, along with Ortiagon Class stealth submarines.

The Commonwealth Ship India was about the largest, the nation's first fleet aircraft carrier. About the size of a British carrier, she had world class communications, sensors, weapons, and aircraft, but, built primarily in the CPRD and already fire-damaged once, serious concerns persisted, quietly, about her damage-control systems and the quality of her reactors, armouring, and countless other features. Still, she carried sixty aircraft including 36 NT-2 Puffin strike fighters armed with DRAB ASRAAM, L'Angelot Maudit AMRAAM, Vanguard AShMs, Parliament AGMs, cannon, laser and satellite guided bombs and cluster bombs, and 80mm rockets. The big ship also unloaded 800 Soviet Marines by helicopter, men who'd fought against worse than five-to-one odds against the French at New Caledonia and killed at more than four-to-one.

The three light carriers had another 36 Puffin between them, and helicopters. They disgorged 1,350 multi-national troops and a dozen of their armoured vehicles. The creaky gun-and-armour ship Petropavlovsk fired a salute from her three 11" forward guns, and sent 100 excited Indians ashore in song.

...Debout, les damnés de la terre, Debout, les forçats de la faim, La raison tonne en son cratère, C'est l'éruption de la fin! Du passé faisons table rase, Foules, esclaves, debout, debout! Le monde va changer de base, Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout! C'est la lutte finale...

Hundreds more men were brought from the ships over the hours to come, and the massive ships Hyaenidae and Aardwolf unloaded an impressive total of one thousand vehicles, from 6x6 trucks to Olifant and Peripatus tanks.

His troops were moving ashore to the charge of Generals, and Viknrix began to think of the Polisario, just a few hundred kilometres away.

The Saharawi were pleased to score hits, to see enemy vehicles immobilized, but it was a fleeting pleasure... the Spanish and Moroccans would come off worse when the accountants totaled up the monetary costs of the war, but the Saharawi killed in these engagements were worth far more than the handful of dollars it had taken to train and equip them. There simply weren’t that many, all told.

Along with their anti-tank munitions, Polisario forces also held numerous air defence systems, concentrated mostly alongside armoured units or in the settlements. The Combine had supplied Igla-based systems, while other donors had furnished the SADR with Javelins and a few less common systems. Hindustan had been supplying the Saharawi with such weapons since the mid-1980s, in small quantities true, but they added up to produce a dangerous environment for helicopters and low-flying aircraft which sought to approach concentrations of Saharawi.

Northern SADR

Though they might have been slowed, the Spanish had relatively little trouble reaching the Saharawi ‘cities’... entering them was a more difficult task, as the inhabitants were determined to resist from the rubble. Small arms fire is constant, joined often by rocket-propelled grenades and makeshift explosives such as molotov cocktails or hand grenades. Some Saharawi light artillery also fires from within the cities, though not to great effect against heavier Spanish vehicles.

Where the invaders overwhelm the defenders, fire continues from the flanks, and some sniping occurs with bolt-action rifles and other weapons capable of sufficient accuracy.

As the combat continues, the Spanish will likely grow to respect the skill and determination of the SADR Women’s Defense Brigades, whose care and caution make them far superior to the oft-brash young men recruited into the Frente Polisario in recent months.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/928/saharawidefendcitiesfj9.jpg

Southern SADR

Once the Spanish begin artillery bombardment, their road is cleared... the Saharawi have little to counter such bombardment. However, as in the north, once the Moroccans advance they must contend with scattered Polisario units converging on their flanks.

Further back, the Polisario begin to consolidate their positions, setting up ambushes and holding positions in the villages, to cover the retreat of civilian elements southeast into Mauritania. There are far fewer civilians here than in the north, and all are loaded onto land rovers and supply trucks for the journey. UAR troops are told to fall back as they must, and to prepare to fight what delaying actions they can... between the Combine and the approaching Indians, heavier forces will arrive to relieve them, if only they can keep the country from being totally overrun.

Northwestern Mauritania/central SADR

It was becoming increasingly clear to Polisario commanders that the northern attack would have to be repulsed if the civil populace was to be preserved... Spain was a power of the Holy League, led by the genocidal French, and an ally of Saharawi-exterminating Morocco. Certainly they would pursue the same course once they had surrounded the SADR’s ‘cities’.

So, Combine-suggested plans for a push on the berm were abandoned, and Polisario’s heavy divisions pushed north. They were hardly comparable to the invasion force they sought to defeat... some sixty elderly T-54s/55s, and as many BMP-1s, a handful of 122mm howitzers and several dozen BM-21 Katyoshka rocket systems. Hindustani advisors had assisted the Polisario in equipping the old tanks with guns capable of firing guided missiles, but the crews knew that their first shot would likely be their last.

Accompanying this force were a dozen 75/105mm super-high velocity AT guns, as well as almost half of the SADR’s air defense missiles, towed by or mounted on numerous Land Rovers that rendered the Polisario force ‘mechanized’. As many AT guns were split off southward to assume ambush positions in case the Moroccan offensive pushed eastward, and camel-mounted Saharawi with RPGs and small arms scattered in all directions, so that they would not form a tempting target for air assault now that their MANPADS were headed off with the armoured elements. Those land rovers that could be spared joined trucks and cars in carrying civilians eastward into the shelter of Mauritania.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/876/saharawicolumnbh6.jpg

[OOC: I'm assuming that's a 'no' to the offer of a peace agreement that might see the Western Sahara liberated.]

Southern Strip
The SADR forces melted away under the bombardment, a few minutes after the artillery had started firing the guns stopped and stage two of the plan began, the armoured and mechanised battallions pushed out of there breaching points and headed to the points on the Mauretanian Border that they had been told to reach. Meanwhile the Towed Guns hitched onto there prime movers and prepeared to move, while the truck mounted motorised infantry spread out over the desert and began to move towards the distant border, gunning anything that good be a Saharwi soldier or civilian without even stopping, firing there rifles through the gaps in the dury rigged aluminium small arms shields while the top mounted machine guns swept the desert for any light vehicles or groups of infantry.

[OOC: Yeep, sorry... meant to reply to the offer at the end of my last post.]

Amidst the leadership of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, or at least those not dead in the recent fighting, there is much debate over opening talks with the Spanish. Several hardliners believe that their cause will soon be bolstered with aid from India and the Combine, as well as Libya... aid that will turn the tide and allow the final liberation of the Western Sahara. Others are not so confident, including SADR president Mohamed Abdelaziz, worried that even if liberation might eventually occur, the cost of fighting on the Saharawi people will be too great.

In the end, Abdelaziz musters enough support to issue a reply to Madrid. The SADR will meet with the Spanish, provided that two conditions are met. The first, that both Hindustan and the Armandian Combine also find the proposed meeting acceptable. The second, that Moroccan and Spanish forces enter a cease-fire with the Polisario and withdraw back behind the berm for the duration of the negotiations.

Southern SADR

Unless the Moroccans actively seek out the handful of Saharawi settlements in the southern regions, they will encounter few Polisario soldiers... these are spread along the south of the berm, rather than wasted in the empty rear areas, and now they are more concerned with consolidation and concealment than pursuing a superior Moroccan force. If the Moroccans advance into Mauritania, their supply lines will stretch out across the Saharawi strip, and if Polisario is to attack it will be against this softer target.

The order had been simple. SPADEC was ordered to disengage from the 'cities'. Casualties were mounting, and with impending war with more conventional forces no more blood could be lost on what was considered Morocco's problem. Nevertheless, SPADEC's orders had changed again. The large force was to remain in Morocco for the time being, and instead of engaging into the cities it would tie to cordons around them with large concentrations of infantry. In other words, SPADEC was sitting in for a siege. The tactical 105mm guns were concentrated in the Western Sahara into stronger artillery forces and now SPADEC had almost 100 guns per city, concentrated for a full bombardment. With no signs of surrender it was decided to cajole them on to the peace table. For the beginning of the next day, since six in the morning, SPADEC's infantry left the cities and dug in, waiting for the beginning of the pending artillery bombardment.

Finally, by midday it had begun. One hundred guns began a non-stop, consistent bombardment of the two major cities in the Northern SADR. Each gun could put four rounds per minute, for almost two hours, meaning each city would receive around fourty-eight thousand high explosive and high-explosive/fragmentary artillery rounds. The idea was to basically flatten the entire area - it was a war of extermination. For two hours the entire Sahara shook as Spanish artillery painted a red and yellow scene of destruction on a people that had deserved their independence since the first day Spanish troops stepped onto their lands in 1884. The noise was defeaning, and some Spanish soldiers would later claim that they could hear the screams of those who died.

All the while SPADEC had taken the initiative to form armoured reconaissance platoons to scour the deserts. The idea was to slowly find and eradicate the dispersed presence of the Saharawi freedom fighters. The armoured recce platoons were given two Pizarro light tanks, armed with 105mm guns, and with a dismount strength of eight soldiers each. Along with the Pizarros were three Stryker armoured personnel carriers, which were considered excess in Spain, which could dismount a total of eighteen soldiers. Fifty of these platoons were created and at any one time up to thirty could be deployed in the desert, with the rest ready to replace any given platoon due to fatigue, end of round, or problems with mechanics. The reconaissance enforce would continue for the next day until Moroccon troops fully replaced SPADEC, and SPADEC could be sent north to rest and refit, including having their Leopard 2Es and Pizarros fitted with the newer GIAT SPATEM warhead killer active protection system, until Spain's Santa Bárbara Sistemas and GIAT could finish their newer active protection system and rush it into service prematurely [originally, it was designed to debut with the Ocelot main battle tank]. A week or less later SPADEC would redeploy south.

SPADEC would help enforce the opening of the new Moroccan/Mauretanian border. The paratroop drop into Mauretania had been a debacle. Lack of leadership and initiative in the area meant that no major city was taken because there were no real objectives. In other words, around four thousand Spanish troops were now in the country, organized into smaller bases and eating off the local population and fauna, sometimes even committing horrible crimes to get themselves food. The faster the border could be opened the faster Spanish forces could regain contact with the legionnairres sent into the country, and the faster they could be organized into resistance groups in case any invasion came from the south.

Furthermore, the Canaries and Madeira were being bolstered with more aircraft to prepare strike groups against Soviet and allied shipping near Senegal. When news arrived of the conditions set by the Saharawi it was decided to do as much damage as possible before actually leaving, therefore avoiding the chance that the Saharawi would take the opportunity to bolster their defenses while Spain and Morocco retreated from the berm. Furthermore, Spain asked the Polisario to allow three major routes of supply through Polisario controlled territory in Southern Western Sahara, although no comment was made on the number of legionnairres present in Mauretania. Regardless, Spain, without the consent of their ally, has set the cease-fire agreement for twenty-four hours and has decided that both armies will disengage and deploy back across the berm within thirty-two hours. That said, the Madrid Conference has been set to begin in the nexty seventy-two hours between the Soviet Combine, SDAR, the Indian Commonwealth, the Soviet Union, Spain and Morocco.

[OOC: Eek, wrote that post before I saw your reply. Let me reword that post. EDIT: Done.]

Southern SADR
The Truck-mounted infantry drive to within a few hundred metres of the start of the berm minefield and then turn around, drive to the mauretanian border and then do it all over again, they combed the desert looking for the SADR units that were sure to be gathered opposite the berm in the 20km wide strip of desert, it was there only route to the sea and carried the lifeblood of the Polisario. They were sure to be here and they would be found.
Meanwhile the Mechanised and Armoured Forces began stage three, upon reaching the porous Mauretanian border they split up into Battalion squadrons and begin to swing either towards the sea or towards the South East of the Western Sahara, the only remaining unocupied part of SADR territory, they were to attack any Polisario force they came across [That includes Refugees] and lay waste to all settlements as they pushed towards there objectives, the sea and the eastern edge of the SADR, they even ventured upto 15km into Mauretania, secure in the knowledge that the only organised forces in the area were the Spanish Legion, nevertheless they unfurled enormous flags, so that the green-star-on-red flapped in the wind as the columns of tan coloured vehicles sped across the desert on a mission of death and destruction

EDIT:
The Sultan Line
With the offensive against the SADR drawing to a close, the country began to prepare itself for a possible invasion by the Indians and there allies, thus a massive defensive fortification project was begun. It ran about 3km behind the berm from the coast in the south-west of the Southern Provinces until the point where the berm changed direction and began to run in a north-south direction in its curve towards Morocco.
Its frontmost fortification was a pair of anti tank ditches, about 80m apart, each with several staggered sallying gaps, both were sown liberally with anti tank mines on both the ditch and spoil dike (the artificial ridges created by the spoil on the defended side of the ditch) portions. Inset into the pair of spoil dikes were small 4 man nests, so well camoflauged that they would be totally impossible to see before they opened fire. The ones in the frontmost trench were armed with an MG3 on a heavy tripod and a Tripod Mounted MILAN Anti Tank Missile Launcher, while those on the second trench were also armed with a tripod mounted MG3 but with a Spanish built RPG-29 inplace of the MILAN. Behind the second ditch were posistioned the 81mm Mortar teams ready to fire on request from the infantry, who communicated with them both by radio and field telephone.
The second line of defence was likely to be the most brutal. Nine hundred metres of open ground, deliberately cleared of anything larger than the occasional knee high boulder. The sally gaps in the second antitank ditch lined up with slanted channels through the open ground to other gaps in the backstop anti tank ditch, everywhere else in the open ground was laced with both anti tank and anti personel mines by the tens of thosuands.
At the back of this killzone are the 500 M60A3s so recently recieved from Spain, along with hundreds of anti tank guns and concealed ATGM teams. The tanks were dug in so only the top of there turrets and the gun barels were vissible, this small visible silloheute was covered by masses of camoflague netting, making the tanks impossible to see, the ATGs and ATGM posistions were likewise impossible to see. Massed Air Recon might have spotted them all, but without total air superiority they were unlikely to achieve this. Behind the killzone was a repition of the front line of defenses, this formed the final backstop of the fixed defensive perimetre.

Nouakchott, Mauritania

As Spanish paratroopers appear in Mauritania, and Moroccan forces surge southward from the Berm, SADR representatives in Mauritania call for cooperation between Bir Lahlou and Nouakchott in dealing with the ‘monster of Franco-Spanish-Moroccan subjugation of the Maghreb’. Through unity, the smaller nations of ECOWAS have delivered a black eye to the French empire only a short distance to the south, and the cause of African solidarity rises higher than ever before while the rest of the world seems poised to strike at Rabat and the Holy League. The lesson that has been revealed is that through unity, strength can be found, sufficient to hold out until the aggressors are struck down.

Northern SADR: Bir Lahlou & Tifariti

Systematic Spanish bombardment devastates the Saharawi cities... a modern town of concrete and steel might be hard-pressed to stand against such an attack, let alone the mud walls of the refugee settlements. Thousands perish, and hundreds more fall in desperate sorties against the encircling Moroccans, driven with flames at their backs to try an escape.

Southward, SPADEC recce platoons and the leading elements of Polisario’s mechanized column would doubtless soon begin to exchange fire, the Saharawi soldiers spurred by news of death in the cities and taking full advantage of a very temporary superiority in numbers and firepower over Spanish Pizarros and Strykers.

Northern SADR: Mehares

Not a major population center, Mehares once served as the command hub and rest depot for Polisario forces deployed along the northern berm. It will unlikely do so again, even should the SADR emerge victorious... its commander, one Abdellah Ould Moulay Ahmed Baba, perished in the opening exchange of the conflict, and Mehares was reduced to little more than rubble by Spanish air and artillery strikes. Survivors provided resistance to any approaching SPADEC troops, but their capabilities were limited... most of the troops ‘stationed here’ were arrayed along the berm, and much heavier equipment had been moved either south to join the Polisario armoured ‘division’, or to the nearby cities to help alleviate ongoing problems of logistics. Still, perhaps three or four hundred Saharawi, mostly from Women’s Defence Brigades sprinkled with older Polisario veterans, began to move in a dispersed fashion towards Tifariti, hoping to link up with the armoured advance or at least distract Spanish troops so those trapped in the city would be better able to escape.

Southern SADR: along the Berm

Truck-mounted patrols near the berm are certainly able to discover Saharawi positions... usually by receiving a rocket-propelled grenade in the engine block from one of hundreds of two- and three-man teams scattered independently along the berm, who scatter after they launch their attacks to avoid inevitable counter-battery fire.

Southern SADR: La Guera

Polisario’s only port was preparing for a siege, and unlike elsewhere the troops stationed here sat upon a sizeable surplus... aid and equipment from foreign nations which had been in the process of unloading from transport ships at the time of Moroccan attacks. Those ships, cargo’s quickly removed, were doubtless readying themselves to depart before they were caught in coming attacks, but in an effort to draw in foreign assistance the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic issues a statement that its coast is open to receive and assist “all vessels of the Indian states, of China, Walmington, and Australasia, of Quinntonia, engaged in the great campaign to preserve the rights of all peoples to self-determination and freedom from imperialism.” A symbolic gesture at best... unlike nearby Nouadhibou in Mauritania, the SADR’s port is in no state to handle large military ships.
Arms are distributed, including fresh crates of Combine RPG-29s, and UAR commanders are informed that they ought fall back either to La Guera, or to Zug, where it may be possible to mount some sort of resistance until military aid arrives from other powers.

Southern SADR: Zug

Sitting at the mouth of the southern corridor, the town of Zug had long been a command center for Polisario forces, and a vital stop on the long road between the sea and the cities. If they pushed into the southeastern SADR, the invaders would come here, and Polisario intended to hold them, if only for a time.

Any Moroccans approaching Zug would find a surprise waiting before the defenders fired a shot. Under Hindustani encouragement in the 1980s, The Frente Polisario had disavowed use of landmines, due to their indiscriminate nature. Existing stockpiles of mines and components had been moved to underground storehouses, but the SADR and its supporters had lacked the resources to dismantle them. Now, these materials had been brought up and prepared for war, with thousands of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines now encircling the city in a protective embrace. A number of 80mm mortars, and two 120mm tubes, also supplement the small arms and RPGs of some thousand defenders deployed in the town and along its defensive rings.

Moroccan-occupied SADR

In the occupied territories, brutality against refugee cities triggers an eruption in violence and vandalism, directed against the occupational government and its soldiers. Stones and rocks form primary weapons at first, but Molotov cocktails soon burst on the walls and roofs of military buildings and state offices as angry crowds outside grow ever larger. Attacks and sabotage against logistics, including improvised roadside bombs and Moroccan-owned cars set aflame, doubtless place a dent in efforts to construct additional defenses in the Western Sahara.

[OOC: Can’t form complete replies everywhere... things depend a bit on where the Lusakans decide to go, if the Moroccans meet resistance along the Mauritanian border, and to a lesser extent maneuvers in the Atlantic. Better than nothing, I suppose].

[OOC: Alright, hopefully this will start up again, I think Spiz is possibly taking temporary control of Spanish forces? And, given how Austria seems intent on barreling in here, and the Saharawi and Mauritanians have been pushed into the same bed, so to speak, I thought I ought take up the reigns of Mauritania so that everything is represented in RP. Below is the framework I'm operating under, based as much as possible on RL but taking into account a few things which are unique to AMW].

MAURITANIA

People
Population: 3,177,388
Ethnicity: mixed Maure/black 40%, Maure 30%, black 30%
Religion: Muslim 100%.
Language: Arabic is the official language. The Arabic spoken in Mauritania is called Hasaniya. Wolof, Peular, and Soninke are spoken in southern Mauritania and recognized as national languages; Wolof is also recognized as an official language. French is widely used, particularly in business, but its status as an official language was eliminated in the 1991 constitution

Government
Overview: On August 3, 2005, the Mauritanian military, including members of the presidential guard, seized control of key points in the capital of Nouakchott, overthrowing the strong-arm government of President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya (who had himself come to power through a military coup). The coup, occuring when Taya was meeting with leaders in Europe, took place without loss of life. The officers, calling themselves the Military Council for Justice and Democracy, named Colonel Mohamed Vall, director of the national police force, as interim President.
Col. Mohamed Vall was once regarded as a firm ally of the now-ousted president Sid'Ahmed Taya, even aiding him in the original coup that brought him to power, and later serving as his security chief. This high-level betrayal of the former president suggests broad discontent within the branches of local government, which is further supported by the lack of bloodshed and the population's support of the coup. It is widely believed that Taya was highly unpopular amongst the general populace due to his crackdowns against Islamic leaders and widespread corruption in his dealings with foreign firms (seen as ‘selling out’ Mauritania’s resources in unfair agreements which enriched both foreign concerns and his own clique of supporters).
Applauded by the Mauritanian people, but cautiously watched by the international community, the coup has since been generally accepted, while the military junta has promised to organize elections within two years. In a referendum on June 26, 2006, Mauritanians overwhelmingly (97%, with over 70% voter turnout) approved a new constitution which limited the duration of a president's stay in office. Col. Vall, promised to abide by the referendum and relinquish power peacefully.
Official Names: Al-Ğumhūriyyah al-Islāmiyyah al-Mūrītāniyyah (République Islamique de Mauritanie).
Head of State: President Ely Ould Mohamed Vall (Colonel, interim until elections in 2007)
Capital: Nouakchott
Flag: An emerald green flag, proportion three to two, bearing a crescent and five-pointed star, in yellow, in the center thereof. The green and the crescent are both symbols of Islam; the green also represents hope for a bright future. The yellow stands for the Sahara Desert. The military roundel is a green disk with yellow up-pointing crescent and five-pointed star above it, used on the wings of aircraft, with the regular flag used for tail and fuselage markings as well as on other equipment.
International Relations: The government of President Taya left the ECOWAS organization in 2000, after disputes over democratic processes and oppression of black populations by the Maure-dominated government. The new government has improved matters to some extent, but the population is not likely to favour even the small sacrifice of independence that rejoining ECOWAS would entail.
Immediately after the coup, Mauritania was widely condemned for several days, until it became apparent that the military was acting with almost-total popular support. However, some countries (such as Hindustan) remain ambivalent towards the current junta, awaiting fulfilment of the promise to hold proper elections in 2007.
Relations with Morocco and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic have always been difficult. Backed by France and Morocco, Mauritania occupied the south of the Western Sahara for several years, until the economic consequences of the war and popular opposition led to the overthrow of the government in a military coup. The new government extended recognition to the SADR and withdrew its troops, though Morocco occupied the vacated territory immediately. Mauritania has long feared Morocco, the major regional power, and allowed Saharawi to move through its borders in an attempt to maintain the SADR as a buffer zone while its own troops kept guard along the northern border.
Relations with France are equally complex. After the fall of Algeria, the government of President Taya adjusted its policies to maintain favour in Europe, suppressing Islamic leaders and allowing foreign concerns large concessions and tax exemptions. These moves were upopular, and contributed to the 2005 coup.
Relations with China are positive, due to goodwill from the Friendship Port and trade arrangements generally seen by the population as more 'fair' than those offered by other concerns. Nervous about Moroccan and French agression, the Mauritanian government offered use of the Friendship Port to Chinese naval vessels in the Atlantic, in need of shore leave or a base through which resupply could occur.
Government-in-Exile: Away in Europe during the 2005 coup, Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya has remained in exile, joined by several dozen supporters whose wealth was confiscated by the military, and a handful of his former soldiers who feared they too might be accused of corruption (only about twenty men, though not badly trained, now forming his bodyguard). After it became apparent that support was not to be found within Mauritania, Taya has become vocal in condemning the current government as a ‘military dictatorship’ in the democratic world, and a cabal of ‘Muslim fanatics’ in the Christian sphere, searching for support to restore him to power. He and his supporters currently subsist on funds from accounts in countries which refused to recognize the Mauritanian government’s seizure of pre-coup resources.

Economy
Overview: One of the driving factors behind the military coup in August 2005 was the decision by the former President to grant foreign companies favourable terms, tax breaks, and guaranteed profit allowances, a move which was widely unpopular and seen as unfair amongst the populace [OOC: In RL the worst offender was an Australian company, with Americans coming in a close second, but given the more moral attitude of the USQ and the rise of the Holy League in recent years, it would seem likely that in AMW such companies would be more likely French, Spanish, or Russian, possibly even Austrian. If Australasia wants to keep things as in RL, I believe the Australian police are now investigating Woodside Petroleum for bribery and other illegal activities]. The current regime cancelled several contracts and declared that Mauritania's oil resources would be harvested for the benefit of its people. With several foreign companies unhappy at the new government's position, development of the resource has been much slower than it might otherwise have been. One offshore field at Chinguetti has entered full operation, with another under construction and two more scheduled for eventual use.
Unpopular corruption also existed in the large fishery and iron mining industries, where the former President had concentrated control in a small number of loyal families. After the coup, this control was siezed by the state and redistributed, along with much of the wealth held by those families. The domestic cannery industry has been expanded somewhat, and a smelter has been constructed with the intent of eventually exporting finished goods rather than raw materials. The country still exports 12 million tonnes of iron ore annually.
Small-scale slavery still exists in Mauritania, despite its abolition a quarter-century ago and laws denouncing it from the current government. Following the coup, several wealthy families who had been loyal to the former President were accused of keeping slaves, and at present measures against such practices have put an end to such things in urban areas. In the rural countryside, however, traditional caste relations continue to persist in some communities, including slavery. Slaves are primarily domestic workers (rather than labour), and appear roughly equally across Mauritania's ethnicities.
In 1973, Mauritania began exploitation of large deposits of gypsum located about fifty kilometers northeast of Nouakchott. Total reserves of 98 percent pure gypsum were estimated at 1 billion tons. Operations during the 1970s entailed the export by road of roughly 17,000 tons per year to cement factories in Senegal. Senegal in turn sold cement to Mauritania on a rebate basis. Rising transportation costs forced a halt to operations from 1981 until 1984, when production of gypsum resumed with funds from United Elias investors. Output in 1985 was 5,470 tons, which were consumed locally in a crushing and bagging operation that imported clinker from Senegal to make cement. Exports of gypsum to Senegal resumed by sea when the new Chinese-built Friendship Port at Nouakchott became operational.
In 1984 a consortium discovered large deposits of phosphates near the Senegalese border (estimated at 95 million tons of rock, averaging approximately 20 percent of phosphate pentoxide). Lack of funds and a drop in foreign investment have halted efforts to develop the resource.
The ‘Friendship Port’ of Nouakchott, with annual capacity of 500,000 tons, was first conceived as a ‘gift’ from the Sinoese government of General Liu, whose economy was increasingly drawn out in search of raw materials. The port was completed after Chinese Unification by private concerns, in exchange for guaranteed supplies of specific materials.
Monetary Unit: The ouguiya (UM), a paper currency of 5 khoums, issued by the Central Bank of Mauritania, replaced the Communauté Financière Africaine franc on 29 June 1973. There are coins of 1 khoum and 1, 5, 10, and 20 ouguiyas, and notes of 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 ouguiyas. UM1 = $0.00374 (or $1 = UM267) as of January 2003.

Military

--Army--
Manpower: 15,000 regulars.
Order of Battle: Two infantry battalions (6 companies), two MBT squadrons, two armoured car squadrons, one parachute-commando company, three reconnaissance squadrons, one artillery battalion (3 batteries), one airborne company, one engineering corps (3 companies), one antiaircraft battery, and one camel corps (for border patrol, 3 companies).
Organisation: Battery = 6-8 heavy pieces. Company = 100-200 men. Squadron = 9-20 vehicles or aircraft.
Deployment: Two thirds of Mauritania’s army remains deployed along the northern border, due to fears of Moroccan and Franco-Algerian aggression.
Combined Arms School of Atar (Ecole Militaire Interarmes d'Atar--EMIA), founded in 1976, trains officers (two-year program) and NCOs (one-year program).
Army operates a military telecommunications system with relatively modern capabilities, installed by the French army in 1977.
Equipment:
Pistols: Many officers carry MAS mle.1950 sidearms, as do vehicle crews where space will not allow them a rifle.
Rifles: Older French models are prevalent, with the MAS-49 predominant. Some elite units have been equipped with FAMAS, while a few rural police are still armed with the rather embarrassing Lebel Model 1886. In some areas, AK-47s are in use amongst squad members preferring a heavier rifle.
Sub-Machine Guns: The MAT-49 is standard amongst police units and vehicle crews, as well as being dispersed amongst some infantry units in areas where close-in fighting is expected.
Machine Guns: The AA-52 is the standard automatic weapon, carried by infantry and mounted on vehicles. In the former role, it is unpopular due to its weight. Some police headquarters have older Browning M2s, though maintenance varies widely.
Anti-Tank Missiles: Maritania's military has, due to budget difficulties and intended role, had little need for dedicated anti-tank systems. Perhaps a half-dozen HOT-1 systems are scattered amongst infantry units, with three-times that number of MILAN and several RPG-7 knockoffs obtained from the Algerian republic or Libya.
Light Artillery: 81mm mortars usually accompany infantry formations, though weight means that they are often carried in Land Rovers or civilian vehicles when forces are moving significant distances. A handful of rifle-launched grenades also exist, though few soldiers are eager to make use of these.
Heavy Artillery: The Mauritanian Army has access to a small number of 155mm howitzers, deployed in fortified positions along the northern border.
Vehicle Transports: The Mauritanian army lacks a degree of mobility, without mechanized infantry forces. It employs an array of civilan trucks, buses, and cars to move its troops outside of combat, and some Land Rovers (mounting mortars or machine guns) for shorter movements in hostile areas.
Combat Vehicles: The Mauritanian Army operates forty Panhard AMLs, as well as thirty-five AMX-30 MBTs. Several AMX vehicles have been upgraded with ERA supplied by Libya, and six laser-guided rounds were supplied by the former Sino during negotiations over the Friendship Port (but only four vehicles are equipped and trained to use them).
Helicopters: The Mauritanian Army maintains one squadron of helicopters for its airborne contingent, consisting of seven Alouette II scout helicopters and eight Puma transport helicopters. One Puma is reserved for use by government officials, and the remainder operate in peacetime for medical and relief flights.

--National Gendarmerie--
Manpower: 4,900 regulars.
Deployment: Headquarters in Nouakchott. As police force, operates small posts throughout rural and urban areas. Includes Presidential Guard, responsible for protecting the president and his home.
Equipment: In addition to small arms and civilian vehicles, the Gendarmerie operates one French-built VAB out of Nouakchott, equipped with a water cannon for riot control. It is, however, deployed as a firefighting vehicle rather than in police actions.

--Navy—
(Marine Mauritanienne)
Manpower: 500 regulars.
OOB: Thirteen combat patrol craft.
Deployment: Main naval base at Nouadhibou (8 ships), secondary base at Nouakchott Friendship Port (5 ships). One ship from each base engages in patrol during peacetime, others remain in port. Due to parts shortages, up to three vessels at each base will not be reliably seaworthy at any given time.
Mauritanian Naval College at Nouadhibou trains naval personnel, with officers receiving additional training in France (until 1980) and Libya.

--Air Force--
(Force Aerienne Islamique De Mauritanie)
Manpower:: 250 men (24 pilots)
Deployment: Air strips were located at 'Ayoûn el 'Atroûs, Akjoujt, Atar, Fdérik, Bir Moghreïn, Kaédi, Kiffa, Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, and Rosso. Not all airstrips have maintenance facilities, and many are simply landing areas for craft to drop off passengers and depart, rather than bases from which aircraft can operate.
Pilots were trained in France up until 1980, after which they received training in Sino/China. A training squadron was established to prepare pilots domestically in 2005.
No regular patrol flights are conducted due to worries over parts maintenance costs should aircraft suffer difficulties.
Equipment:
Aermacchi F-260EU: 1 (patrol/training)
BN-2A Defender: 4 (COIN/patrol)
Cessna FTB337G: 2 (COIN/comms)
Cessna F337F: 2 (COIN/comms)
PA-31 Cheyenne II: 2 (coastal patrol)
Harbin Y-12 II: 2 (trans)
Xian Y-7: 1 (trans)
DHC-5D Buffalo: 1 (trans)
DC-3: 1 (trans)
SIAI SF 260E: 1
Piper Pa-31T Cheyenne II: 1
Max Holste MH.1521M Broussard: 1

Civil Aviation (likely folded into military operations in the event of an emergency.

Air Mauritaine
National airline, operating on domestic and international flights (Madrid, Tripoli)
Boeing 727-294/Adv: 1
Fokker Fellowship: 3
Compagnie Mauritanienne des Transports Aériens
Airline transporting fresh fish and raw materials same-day from Mauritania to nearby foreign buyers.
Antonov An-24B: 2
Adygeya Airlines
Airline transporting goods and passengers between Mauritania and the rest of West Africa.
Antonov An-26: 1

OOC* IF you could get together with Spizania, who is now doing Spain? since Mac is gone?, and do a Timeline for all of this on the main thread that would just be fantastic...

...and help us to all resume on the same page.