2:34am in the city Khavash located in re south eastern province of Xanah gun and mortar fire broke out as local police forces were fought out of the city. Members of the Shia Islamist group Ansar al-Kourosh were the main contributor to the attack with a force of 600 men armed with locally produced and smuggled foreign weaponry mostly Russian made rifles and explosives as well as the Sunni group Jamaat al-Jihad contributing a reported 50-100 fighters while the main stay of their force consolidated a hold of the mostly Arab countryside 67 km north of Khavash encircle the town of Haruq on three sides. Currently the city of Kharash has been seized by the Shia Islamist as well as a total of 37 surrounding settlements with the groups leader Kourash Rabbani has reportedly taken the cities government building and declared himself Sultan of the newly declared the area as the Xanah Sultanate. While the group and the sultanate has support from the Persian community in the area many none Twelver Shia Muslims have fled the area as well as many Jews, Sunnis, and Wasis fearing discriminitive violence.
Just north of Khavash several Sunni intrest parties have formed to create the group Jamaat al-Jihad and have taken vast amounts of territory in the east with their headquarters being located in the Mountain city of Tazar. The group claims to speak for the under represented Sunni Arabs that reside in the East the same as Ansar al-Kourash claim to do for the Persian Shias. Both groups number around 10,000 to 12,000 fighters and hold consiter able territory with local support thanks mostly to anger with the central government based in the west and filled with ethnic Altari Wasi Muslims.
Many groups have fled the east given the current situation with Wasis, Jews, Christians, and none twelver Shias trying to escape persecution while many other groups near the territory controlled by these armed groups have set up self-Defence militias with the majority christian city of Quds being the largest at 1,200 armed men mostly Christians and Jews with many muslims opposed to the two insurgency groups within their ranks. But given the term oil in the east many opposition parties have started their own organizations with groups like the Popular Movement for Secular Resistence (PMSR) and Organization for Democracy (OD) being popular in the capital and other pro-government militias forming in the areas under threat by these Islamist rebels. However many anti-Islamist and anti-government forces have sprung up as well with the mostly Russian Army of Noravenska (AoN) and the Popular Front for a Democratic Altarastan seeing swells in support.
It's been three days since this major upheaval in the socio-political order has occurred without any major confrontations but three bstallions of Altari government soldiers are heading to the east to help kickstart a major offensive to push the Islamist groups out of the area to begain. The government of Altarastan has also asked for international support especially is things such as logistical support and air power.
As daylight fell Operation Nightcrawler was a go, with 6,600 army soldiers staged to fortify and repulse Sunni Islamist from Haraq and to make damaging incursions into the Xanah Sultanate. Thirty seven Mikoyan MiG-27's have been given clearance to go with 5 in the air at all times for a constant bombardment of enemy strong holds in the area.
