East of Nakba (14)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

April, 2022

Part I. Israel bombs a nuclear plant in Iran

 

Chapter 14. Operation code name ‘South of the Border’ (1)

 

In early Monday morning, the guide lights of Hafar al-Batten air base illuminated the runway brightly. Many soldiers were rushing around hangar and office. The commander, Prince Turki, didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. But his excited heart made his head clear.

 

The Adhan urging the prayer of dawn was heard from the minaret of the mosque in the base. Worship used to be done in the mosque. But today they laid a small carpet respectively in the desert outside the barracks and prayed toward Mecca in the south. The area was surrounded with the clean air. The sky turned bright in the east. The sun appeared into the horizon. It was a divine scenery that Bedouin in the desert had seen for hundreds of years. They chanted a verse of the Koran and bent their knees several times to bow down to the ground. Their hearts were filled with the gratitude to Allah.

 

After praying, prince brushed off the sand on his uniform and looked back to the northern sky. It was the time for Israeli jet fighters to pass. Israeli pilots were instructed to avoid Saudi base and fly deep into Iraq when they passed near Hafar al-Batten air base. Therefore, it was impossible to watch jet fighters directly from the base. But Bedouin didn’t miss the sound. Living in a harsh desert, they had eyes to be able to watch a figure moving on the ridge of a dune, and their eyes were able to catch a trample of camel on a dune far away.

 

Most of the royal family lived in the urban area nowadays, but Bedouin's eyesight and hearing were unrivaled once they were in the desert. It was as powerful as the falcon. It might be more appropriate to call Bedouin a "desert falcon".

 

Groaning sound in the distance was reached to prince. It was so faint that an ordinary people would dismiss as an auditory hallucination. But prince was convinced that it was the sound of jet fighters. His subordinates by his side did not miss it, too. It was the time when regular commercial flights from Beirut to Dubai flew overhead. The prince and his men, however, could listen the difference between the sounds of fighter jets and civilian ones.

 

Prince checked the time on his watch. It was just time to start the operation. Operation’s code name was "South of the Border". Prince and his subordinates quickly went back to the command room.

 

(cont’d)

 

Areha Kazuya