OOC/Planning Thread Here
Astorian Warship Struck by Suicide Boat in Gulf of Tijara
GULF OF TIJARA -- It was a calm day for the men and women of the Greenfield-class guided missile destroyer U.S.S. Sunrise, on patrol in the Gulf of Tijara as part of an ongoing mission to protect commercial shipping, particularly oil tankers, that the Astorian Navy has conducted since the 1980s. The mission has been privately seen as "paid vacation time," in the words of one Astorian sailor, because the Gulf has not seen any major armed conflict since 1984, when Gilan and its eastern neighbor fought a six-year inconclusive war along their border. That war had prompted the Astorian Navy assuming responsibility for protecting the vital commerce traveling in the Gulf of Tijara, which appropriately translates to "the place of trade."
Suddenly, one of the dozens of small watercraft that ply the Gulf made a sharp turn and accelerated directly at the Sunrise. Officers on the ship assumed the craft's owner was attempting to impress his passengers. "Wealthy sons of the local governments will often buzz our warships, in an effort to demonstrate their bravado," Lieutenant Commander Alexa Middleton told a reporter. "We normally hold off firing warning shots or other measures until the last moment, to avoid setting off a diplomatic incident." In this case, that caution proved fatal.
The motorboat, which experts believed was loaded with several tons of explosives, Soviet-made types that have flooded the black market for decades. When the boat collided with the Sunrise, the explosives tore a large hole in the ship. The military has not yet released official casualty figures, but several dozen Astorian sailors and Marines are presumed dead, and possibly hundreds are injured.
The Islamist terrorist organization Soldiers of the Islamic Jihad, or JJI (an acronym of the transliteration of their Arabic name, Junud al-Jihad al-Islami), has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a video statement delivered anonymously to several news organizations, a spokesman for the group claims the attack is the beginning of "a new wave of deadly terror" that will continue to strike Astorian military assets in the Gulf until Astoria evacuates its naval and air bases in the region.
President Berzelius Windrip is expected to issue a statement shortly.
President Windrip Orders Astorian Military Buildup In Gulf of Tijara
COLUMBIA -- Today President Berzelius Windrip announced that the Astorian armed forces will undergo a substantial buildup in the Gulf of Tijara, whose anticipated purpose is to force the rogue state of Gilan to abandon its occupation of Qadha, its small southeastern neighbor that it occupied in the late 1990s, and end its support for the terrorist organization Soldiers of the Islamic Jihad (JJI). The buildup includes the deployment of a second aircraft carrier battlegroup to complement the carrier already on station in the Gulf, additional warships and aircraft, and the positioning of Marine amphibious expeditionary forces in the region.
The dictator of Gilan, President Yasir al-Fulani, made a formal proclamation defying President Windrip. "Gilan maintains its sovereign right to defend the entirety of its territory, despite the false claims of the Western imperialists." Gilan claims Qadha as an ancestral part of its territory, based on the borders drawn by the early Islamic empires during their Golden Age in the 7th century. Gilan's occupation of Qadha in 1998 was met with condemnation from the World Assembly and a sanctions regime that has been half-heartedly enforced by many Europan and Novaterran states, but not the General Union of Revolutionary Proletarian Soviets and its client states.
President Windrip is reportedly looking to solicit World Assembly approval for the use of military force to eject Gilan from Qadha and to neutralize the bases and leadership of JJI.