Middle Eastern Theatre of WW3 (DJK95)

Category:World War III
Category:Scenario
Category:DJK95
Category:Middle East
Category:United States of America
Category:Israel
Category:Iran
Category:Saudi Arabia
Category:Turkey
Category:Wars
The Middle Eastern Theatre of World War 3, also known as the Great Islamic War, was one of the 3 main theatres of combat during WW3. The Middle East saw heavy fighting across a frontline stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean towards the Persian Gulf, starting with the clashes between the russian and western airforce in 2023 and ending with the collapse of Iran as well as the retreat of Turkey from occupied territory in the region and the subsequent occupation of various middle eastern nations like Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. It was also the theatre of some of the most infamous war crimes of the entire conflict, like the Kurdish Genocide, the Second Yazidi Genocide, the ethnic cleansing of Shias and Sunnis, the massacres of Jews all over the Middle East,most notably the West Bank Massacre, as well as the following carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip.
== Prelude of the war ==
== 2023 ==
=== The war spills over ===
While Chinas 79th and 80th armies entered the Korean peninsula to stop the allied advance into North Korea, both the US, now backed by french and british forces, exchanged clashes with the russian air force in the Middle East, following the retaliatory strike of the russian airforce against US ships. Ship launched missiles and drones attacked russian military positions in Syria, including Russias Tartus naval base. Syrian and iranian soldiers were caught in the crossfire, leading both nations to threaten the US and its allies with war, should hostilities not be halted. Saudi Arabia on the other hand declared its unconditional support for the US, should Iran enter the war against America. In the meantime, Russia saw massive anti-american protests by russian nationalists, and after increasing numbers of casualties in Syria and the South China Sea, Vladimir Putin declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and South Korea. He warned that if NATO entered the war in support of America, every participating nation will be met without mercy. The declaration of war was ironically meant as a method of de-escalation, since Putin anticipated that it would scare the US and its allies into a diplomatic approach and concessions, before the conflict would actually start. And despite multiple calls for peaceful solutions of several NATO members, the US declared that it won’t back down when being confronted on the battlefield, which lead Russia to prepare for war with not just America alone, but rather all of NATO.Both Russia and China declared their support for each other, despite mutual distrust. While russian forces entered Korea on Chinas side, NATO called for an emergency meeting in Brussels, in order to discuss the reaction to the escalation. In the meantime, hostilities in the Middle East continued to spiral out of control. More and more syrian and iranian casualties were counted because of the clashes between Russia and the West, which caused Iran to resort to a more aggressive approach itself, meaning a new harassment campaign against the US in the region. Iranian speedboats and other naval assets harassed american vessels in the gulf, in order to divert their attention from the syrian battlefield, hoping that this will push the US to slow down its military actions for the sake of avoiding a broader conflict with Iran. Iranian backed shia militias meanwhile conducted new attacks against the remaining US forces in the bases in and around Baghdad, leading to new air and drone strikes in Iraq against these iranian Proxies. This on the other hand caused new calls of the iraqi government for a US retreat, since Iraq didn’t want to become a battlefield itself, while Iraq saw the US presence as an occupation since the crisis of January 2020. During these attacks, dozens of US soldiers were injured, while five were even killed, since the militias were less hesitant to avoid casualties, due to the dynamic of the escalating tensions. Biden condemned Iran for this and proclaimed that the US will never give in against any tyrannical enemy, while at the same time calling for diplomacy, reason and de-escalation. US aircraft now specifically targeted iranian forces operating in Iraq and Syria, while increasing the aerial presence close to Iran. Iranian forces then fired missiles against american aircraft, accusing them of violating iranian airspace. The attacks missed their targets, but Biden, who was accused by the oppositional republicans and the still very vocal supporters of former president Trump of being too soft towards Iran, saw himself forced to authorize a missile strike against the anti-air batteries in question, leading to massive anti-american protests in Iran. And after a series of violent clashes between american and iranian naval assets in the Persian Gulf, Iran and Syria declared war on the US, France and the UK. This lead to a Saudi ultimatum for complete removal of iranian forces from Syria, and when it was ignored, Saudi Arabia declared war against Iran and Syria. Jordan and the U.A.E. ,as members of the GCC ,were pressured and convinced by Saudi Arabia to join as well, while two days later, Israel and Egypt also joined on the allied side. When troops of the Saudi coalition entered Syria , it's neighbour Lebanon, dominated by the Hezbollah militia, sided with Iran and mobilized its troops against Israeli forces, after these violated lebanese airspace.Since the US pulled out its troops in Syria in 2019, the americans severely lacked in military presence in the region, leaving only a token force of around 5800 soldiers on the Arabian Peninsula to counter russian and iranian forces immediately. Saudi Arabia invaded Iraq with the goal of opening a land front into Iran, leading to a fierce iraqi ultimatum for a total halt of any foreign military action inside Iraq, while demanding the saudis to leave. 
The iraqi demands were largely ignored, with the saudi leadership noting that Iraq should join the GCC coalition in attacking Iran, since they had no intentions of stopping their invasion of Iraq. Iran offered Iraq to support it against the saudi invaders and their quote „imperialist and zionist backers“, and after several clashes between saudi forces and iraqi soldiers in the south of the country, Iraq agreed to a military cooperation with Iran. Iraqi troops besieged american bases and took US, british and french soldiers stationed in Iraq as prisoners , while more and more iranian forces crossed into Iraq to take position against the saudis in the south. Iranian troops also participated in the siege of the american Baghdad base, while additional attacks have been conducted against US installations in iraqi Kurdistan, drawing the attention of NATO member Turkey. Iran tried to gain momentum before the US and the arabian coalition could consolidate their forces, leading it to conduct missile strikes against american bases in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, leaving only Oman unharmed at first. Iranian forces invading Kuwait were halted though, which lead Kuwait to join the allies as well. The only NATO member in the region, Turkey, under the de facto dictatorship of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also entered this war by declaring war on Syria, with which Turkey was already unofficially at war since 2020, and Iraq, but refused to fight against russian and iranian forces. Instead, turkish officials met with an iranian and russian delegation in secret to negotiate a anti-western collaboration pact. Both sides agreed to not interfere with each other, and in exchange, Iran allowed Turkey to invade syrian and iraqi territories, in order to destroy kurdish forces and minorities in the region. Turkey also denied allied troops to use its NATO bases for attacks against russian targets, which increased the rifts inside the alliance. 
Meanwhile, representatives from Russia, China and Iran met in former Astana, Kazakhstan, and signed a cooperation pact, declaring their joined support in opposition to the United States, and its "imperialist " ambitions. Both China and Russia also pressured the members of the SCO and CSTO , as well as Mongolia, to join their cause, if NATO decides to interfere. NATO on the other hand declared its support for America, but hesitated to invoke its article 5. Instead, the UK and France prepared their troops to be sent into the Middle East and Korea to back the american war effort, while Poland and the Baltics are mobilizing their troops at their respective borders with Russia. This was then used to justify a full russian mobilization at the borders not only of the Baltics, but also Norway, Finland and Ukraine, alarming those states as well. Other important NATO members, like Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain remained rather hesitant, and declared only their logistical support for their fighting allies. Hungary, Czechia and Bulgaria neglected their allied duties, and rather declared to stay neutral due to their pro-russian leaderships. The NATO members in the Balkans, Portugal and Denmark also declared their neutrality, but agreed to passive support as well. In the meantime Russia send a regiment of multiple Tupolev Tu -160 Bombers, a transport plane and various long distance planes with around 100 russian soldiers to a new base in Venezuela, while Iran deployed multiple Sahand destroyers that were supposed to be stationed in Venezuela as a sign of support for venezuelan dictator Maduro against the US. Russia also deployed a couple of warships, like anti-submarine vessels and ships with helicopter flattops, so that its presence against the US in South America would be increased. After China entered the fight in Korea more aggressively, Americas carriers in the waters around the peninsula were forced to retreat beyond DF-21 and DF-26 range. Meanwhile, the Holy See of the Vatican state condemned the growing violence on the Asian Continent, and instead called for peace and humility for the sake of mankind. 
=== The Southern Front: Mayhem in the Middle East ===
With both Europe and East Asia falling into chaos, the regional powers of Saudi Arabia and Iran, which enjoyed a numerical advantage over Saudi Arabia, struggled to utilize the war to claim dominace in the Middle East. The arab coalition of Jordan, the U.A.E, Egypt and Kuwait, lead by Saudi Arabia, managed to push forward into revisionist territory, but were halted in a line from Damascus, over Falludscha to Basra, leading to brutal fighting in urban territory, with both sides showing no regard for civillian casualties. Iran in the meantime followed a anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against the Allies. By using recon assets like coastal radars, UAVs and civillian vessels Iran managed to track down and target allied surface vessels in the Persian Gulf, before initiating a concentrated attack against US ships in narrow waters. Iran also launched a massive number of rockets to overwhelm the US's AEGiS naval combat systems, while also luring the vessels towards prelaid mine fields. These attacks where supported by shore based ASCM missile systems, and Klub-K missiles launched from apparently civillian ships. Meanwhile, US airfields in Saudi Arabia where targeted by salvos of iranian missiles, before the islamist republic launched waves of precision strike SRBMs armed with more accurate submunitions that hit unsheltered planes and US assets. Iranian proxy forces then also assaulted US bases with guided missiles and presighted mortars. 
Isreali troops, which were indirectly coordinating their attacks with Saudi Arabia , entered both Lebanon and Syria, although they were met with heavy resistance from syrian troops dug in into the Golan heights. The Hizbolah militia, as well as Iran launched a wide series of missile attacks against Israel, but the majority of the missiles were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome system. Yet, several missiles did hit Tel Aviv and Nablus, leading to the largest number of isreali casualties in more than a decade. Israel also used the war to pursuit its own agenda, meaning they aimed for iranian targets tied to the nuclear program of the islamist state, which was why israeli jets went after iranian nuclear facilities, like power plants and possible bunkers, while delivering a fatal blow against Irans nuclear capabilities. As a result of the destroyed nuclear sites, large areas of rural Iran were polluted by radioactive fallout, which were only made worse by wind and sand storms, leading Iraq and even small areas of Turkey to be affected as well. Iran in retaliation conducted a massive wave of missile and air attacks not only against Israel, but also Saudi Arabia, hitting important bases and oil refineries throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula.The Iranians where able to hit more saudi aircraft with their strike, due to lower numbers of overall saudi bases and therefore higher concentration of assets on these facilities. Iran also closed the Strait of Hormuz, leading to another international oil crisis, as well as the First Battle of the Hormuz Strait, since the US navy , supported by french, british, saudi and even japanese vessels and aircraft tried to break through the blockade. In order to fully seize control of the strait, Iran deployed various influence sea mines, along high quantities of surface contact mines. The influence mines where layed out covertly by iranian submarines, while less sophisticated mines where deployed by surface vessels to deny passage for any US ship. Saudi airforces assisted the US in its mine countermeasures by targeting iranian vessels, but this tied down important airpower which was needed in the ground war. Iran launched land-based ASCM missiles from its islands in the strait, complicating US counterattacks kn the process. 
Meanwhile, french, british and american air forces kept on clashing with their russian counterparts, but received no support from their arab allies, due to the close ties of many middle eastern nations with Russia. On the ground, the western allies engaged with the arab coalition against Iran and its revisionist partners, who were supported by various radical islamist groops, conducting terror attacks to slow down the allied approach. Turkey invaded the nothern territory of Syria and Iraq to exterminate kurdish forces and minorities using anti-terror ambitions as an excuse for its operations. The turkish dictator Erdogan saw this war as the perfect opportunity to play both sides and prevent the kurds from forming an independent state at Turkeys border, which was why he ordered massive aerial attacks against kurdish strongholds in the entire region, leading to heavy casualities. The increased turkish attacks lead to new waves of PKK terror attacks against turkish police and military facilities, which was then used to justify increased military force against kurdish regions in the southeast of Turkey. First reports of turkish troops activly targeting kurdish civillians came up, but were muted by both the turkish controlled media and the Allies, since they kept supporting Turkeys war effort against Syria and Iraq as part of their appeasement policy , unknowing that Erdogan already collaborated with the Revisionist Powers. The turkish operations also forced the YPG and Peschmerga to increasingly join forces with Baschar al Assad, as they did in October 2019, while allied troops reached the outskirts of Damascus. Syria and Iran resorted to chemical weapons use, while digging in, which slowed the allied advance to Damascus down.
== 2024 ==
=== The Southern Front: War against humanity ===
In the Middle East, the Allies were able to manage small successes, compared to the other fronts, but the Hormuz campaign still remained in a deadlock. Well armed Iranian speed boats and fast-attack craft performed several surprise attacks against the US Navy, while covert mines, occasional Iranian quiet submarine assaults and mobile shore-based attacks, leading to steep American losses which turned the strait into a naval no-man's land. In Order to counter this Iranian asymmetric warfare, the US deployed several Littoral Combat ships, which were able to operate at high speeds and could fight close to the beaches, while also being capable to launch attack helicopters and submarines. At the Lebanese part of the front, the Shia militia of Hezbollah, supported by Iran, managed to lure Israeli forces into the steep valleys of southern Lebanon, where they were vulnerable to open attacks. Israeli attempts to destroy Hezbollah's rocket arsenal failed, due to the network of over a thousand tunnels and bunkers Hezbollah has dug over the last years. The air and missile attacks of Israel lead to many civilian casualties, since Hezbollah placed its strongholds close to the Lebanese population, that why Hezbollah's forces were intermingled among civilians as a form of human shield. Although the Trump administration backed Israel, which blamed Hezbollah for the civilian casualties, many nations of the world still blamed Israel for that. Israeli ground troops, supported by American special forces managed to take Tyros and Dibbine, while a few days later, Sidon also fell into Israeli hands, allowing the Allies to threaten Beirut. The Lebanese armed forces, being dominated by Hezbollah for decades, showed only little resistance, since they severely lacked morale and hoped the Shia militia would be exterminated, or at least heavily weakened through this war. Israel suffered several missile strikes from multiple directions, launched by Hezbollah, Iran, and Iranian proxy forces in Syria and Iraq, and even though the advanced Israeli iron dome missile defense intercepted many incoming missiles, Israel still received many hits, due to the enormous numbers of missiles fired. Since the Allies dominated the sky, the Revisionist Powers struggled to manage any forms of land gains, Even though they heavily relied on artillery bombardments, which flattened many allied held population centers, with no regard for civilian life.
Iranian infrastructure and bases along the coast were hit by air-to-ground missiles and the superior Saudi and US air force, although these did not managed to perform any deep incursions into Iranian territory. Iran tried to counter, using its own ballistic missile arsenal, and even though the Saudi patriot missile defense systems provided some protection against the attack, Iran still was successful in hitting strategic Saudi infrastructure and population centers. On the ground, the relatively flat desert fields around Kuwait and Iraq allowed both sides to bring in large armed formations and heavy artillery, leading to the devastation of large inhabited areas, especially since neither side showed regard for civilian life. Even though the Allies had the upper hand in terms of technology, the Revisionist Powers enjoyed numerical superiority, making the allied advance very difficult.
Nonetheless, troops from Israel, Egypt and Jordan, with the help of French, British and American forces were able to break through Syrian defenses and encircle Damascus. In the meantime, Arab troops lead by Saudi Arabia pushed deep into the deserted areas of Iraq, allowing them to threaten Bagdad and moving closer to the Iranian border by taking Basra, forcing Iran to strengthen its defenses on its southwestern border. In the same time, both sides were engaged in the worst war crimes of the 21st century. Saudi troops, accompanied by Sunni militias swept every city they conquered and gathered Shia boys and men, who were then mass executed in order to "secure" the conquered territories. Saudi Arabia justified this barbary with religious reasons, as well as "anti-terror" measures, claiming the killed individuals where either Iranian spies or fighters. This was met with loud outcries from the population of western Allies, while their governments to stayed silent in order to prevent losing Saudi Arabia as an Ally. In Iran, oppressed Sunni minorities started to demonstrate against the regime, while Iranian forces also committed several massacres against Sunnis in Iraq, Syria and Kuwait. The mullah regime blamed the enemy for this civil unrest, and therefore declared those who demonstrated as enemies as well. As a result, the Iranian revolutionary guard started to fire into crowds of Sunni protestors, while arresting and deported those who survived. Iran build several prisons/labor camps in its more remote areas, where they incarcerated Sunnis and forced them into labor as POWs, even though those were Iranian citizens. Many Sunnis, but also western nationals and other minority members where executed and tortured in these camps, which was exploited for allied propaganda.
Turkey, an official ally who secretly collaborated with the Revisionist Powers, also followed through with its campaign against Kurdish regions in the north of Syria and Iraq. The troops of Turkish dictator Erdoğan marched through every single Kurdish city and bombarded those with no regard for civilian life. Despite heavy resistance from the Peshmerga, SDF and YPG, Turkish forces were able to conquer the majority of Kurdish cities north of the Euphrates. While continuing with their conquest, Turkish troops committed countless war crimes against Kurdish fighters civilians. Kurds were mass killed and tortured, while men and boys where forced to dig ditches to dispose their own bodies after being executed by the Turkish military. Women and girls where often abducted for weeks and raped, before most of them where ultimately killed as well. Turkey denied any claims of these massacres, calling them fake news and anti-Turkish propaganda, while also insisting that every measure taken in the conquered areas was just against "terrorists". Reports came up about Iranian forces launching missiles against the Turks in Iraqi Kurdistan, and while this was used by allied politicians as an proof of Turkish commitment for the alliance, the reality was that this was a joint Iranian-Turkish offensive against Kurds in northern Iraq, disguised as a confrontation between the two nations
== 2025 ==
=== Palestine goes to War ===
At the Southern Front in 2025, the Allies enjoyed some success in their fight against Iran and its Allies and proxies. Clandestine special operation forces of the US inside Iran managed to destroy and sabotage key assets of the enemy, while also bringing allied insiders into safety outside of the Islamist republic. Iran itself suffered from a depletion of ammunition stockpiles, even though Russia tried to hold up its supplies for its fellow Revisionist Power. The Allies on the other hand managed to use their advantage in the eastern Mediterranean to bring in more resources to deal with the bulk of Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian defenses, while also supporting Israel's effort against Lebanon and Hezbollah. The US brought increased numbers of Patriot missiles, HIMARS Rocket Systems and attack helicopters like the Apache that was already used at the Western Front. The Iranian proxy forces in Syria and Iraq used explosively formed penetrators to deliver damage to American anti-IED assets on the battlefield, even though this was not enough to prevent US-special forces from targeting and neutralizing many of the underground bunkers, from where they received their supplies. US B-52 stealth bombers, some of which were stationed in the region as early as 2019, were also used to circumvent Iranian air-defenses. Among these air defenses were not only the Iranian made Bavar-373 surface to air missiles, but also Russian S-300 and S-400 systems, which saw great success against allied air forces at the Western Front. In order to cope with these systems, the Allies massively increased their sortie raids, leading to more than 1,500 strikes to be performed per day at the Southern Front. In the gulf, the US used airborne intelligence to detect enemy threats, since the nature of the strait gave the allied fleet only short warning time to react to attacks from enemy assets like Iran's Ghadir-class mini-subs. In order to deal with Iranian anti-ship warfare in the Gulf, the US also brought in Rolling Airframe missiles, Evolved Sea-Sparrow missiles and standard missiles, that kept decimating Iran's own cruise missile inventory. America deployed up to three carrier groups in the Region, although the continuous battle in the Persian Gulf forced the majority of the fleet to operate from the Arabian Sea, targeting Iran's southern coast off the shores of neutral Oman. Despite many Iranian anti-ship batteries along the southern coast being destroyed, the US still lost one carrier in the process, rendering the revisionists in the Middle East a somewhat propaganda success. Further to the West, the Palestinian territories kept being entangled in the war. After the radical Islamist Hamas pledged its alliance to Iran as early as 2022, both Israel and Hamas kept exchanging hostilities, causing the latter to proclaim that it would not stop attacking Israel until it drops out of the war in favor of Iran, hoping that this could help Hamas to increase its pressure on Israel to push their own agenda.
After hundreds of Iranian made missiles hit targets all over western Israel, like Tel Aviv, dozens of Israelis were killed since Israel's Iron-Dome air-defenses were worn out and depleted after almost 2 years of fighting. After a radical Palestinian suicide attack in Jerusalem that killed another 100 Israeli civilians, Israel decided to invade the Gaza Strip to wipe out Hamas. This caused a massive opposing reaction from the Palestinian population, leading hundreds of protesters to gather at the border fences and fight against the invaders. civilians threw rocks and used slingshots against the heavily armed Israeli forces, while Hamas members used the crowds as human shields and covers to fire at the Israeli troops. This caused the Israelis to take countermeasures, leading to exchanges of fire between the Hamas and the Israeli forces between the protesters, which lead to the death of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, exploited by Hamas and Iranian propaganda.
== 2026 ==
=== The Southern Front: Advance of the Allies ===
While the Allies were still caught in a stalemate in Europe, as well as being unable to break through the Chinese defenses at the Eastern Front, they actually saw more success in the Middle East. After years of relentless fighting and aerial bombardment, the Battle of Beirut lead to a clear Israeli victory, leaving Lebanon as one of the first revisionist countries to mostly come under allied occupation. But the victory was not total. Hizbollah still engaged in urban warfare in several pockets of resistance all over Lebanon, while still firing salvos of missiles into Israel as a terror campaign. Since the years of fighting diminished Hizbollahs arsenal, while disrupting its Iranian supply lines in Syria and Iraq, the Shia militia faced increased material shortages, rendering its terror attacks mostly symbolic in nature. In Syria, the pressure on Damascus remained high, even though the usage of chemical weapons during the siege of the city lead to thousands of allied and civilian casualties.
The Syria campaign of the allied-Arab coalition achieved a series of strategic victories, in form of cutting of the influx of Iranian fighters coming to Syria through Iraq, leading the Iranian forces there to be mostly isolated from their reinforcements. Allied troops were even able to push as far North as Deir ez-Zor, where their advance was halted by the presence of Turkish forces. Turkey was able to conquer the majority of Syrias Kurdish areas, leading thousands of civilians to be either displaced or killed. The last resistance of the SDF and YPG retreated into the now allied controlled Dayr As Zawr region, leading to the first negotiations with western allied forces for peace and protection. Any remaining Kurdish resistance in the Turkish occupied territories, armed or unarmed, was struck down with brute force, leading to several accusations of deliberate massacres against civilians. In Iraq, the Revisionist Powers faced even more setbacks. Allied troops were able to close in to the now fortified Iranian border, after the Battle of Basra. This allied advance forced the revisionists to mostly retreat behind the Euphrates, Shatt al Arab and Tigris rivers, while also fortifying Al Kut and Baghdad. After keeping the majority of its naval assets in a safe distance in the Arabian Sea, the US decided to more offensively support their ships that were already in the Gulf of Oman following some breakthroughs in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians used their Khalij Fars anti-ship missiles to inflict as much damage as possible to the incoming waves of US vessels, while the Americans started a more aggressive bombing campaign not only against revisionist targets along the frontline, but also against targets in Iran itself.
The US used the British base of Diego Garcia to launch bomber strikes against Iranian targets, while American Superhornet jets took off from the only 2 aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea. The Iranian targets hit included Bandar Lengeh, Minab, Buscher and Borazjan, while the Iranians themselves were able to use their air defenses to nibble away at the US jet fleet. The lack of sufficient numbers of SAM systems, as well as American edge in jamming technology lead to the neutralization of a large fraction of Iran's anti-air defenses, leading to secret talks between Russian and Iranian officials about Iran possibly acquiring the Russian made S-400 system, that was already been used by Turkey, while also negotiating the purchase of Russia's newer S-500 system. The barrages of allied missile strikes, mostly using Tomahawks and similar weapons, lead to the majority of Iranian surface vessels in the gulf being destroyed, forcing the remaining ships to take a defensive stand around Iranian islands in the strait of Hormuz. In the meantime, the Iranian proxy forces of the Houthi-rebels in Yemen managed to tie down relatively large formations of Saudi forces, slowing down Saudi Arabia's progress at the front, while also further disrupting the Saudi flow of oil through the Red Sea. This ongoing assaults lead the Saudis to demand more support from the US against the Yemeni rebels, which was met with heavy resistance from the American congress, since Saudi Arabia's Yemen-campaign was a source of grave criticism in America, even before WW3 broke out.
At the same time, Israel increased its air-, and missile strikes against targets and Gaza, while also sending in ground forces into the West Bank, to prevent additional Palestinian insurgencies and terror attacks. Meanwhile in the Caucasus, most of Armenia was already occupied by the Turkish army, leaving only a small pocket of Armenian resistance in Nakhchivan, which was still held by Armenian forces throughout the last years of the war. While the Azeris, who were able to fully consolidate their gains in Nagorno-Karabakh, started negotiations with Turkey about how much Armenian territory should go to Azerbaijan, Iran made an agreement with the Turks to stop any aggression against Azerbaijan, in order to have more resources for its fight against the Allies at the Southern Front, now that Lebanon collapsed. The remaining Russian troops in Armenia, which were already unharmed throughout the Caucasus campaign due to the Turkish-revisionist collaboration pact, were called back to Russia in order to be used as reinforcements along the Western Front, as well as expeditionary forces for a potential arctic offensives scheduled for later the same year. The Russians retreated through Nakhchivan into Iran, and were brought to Russia with the help of the Caspian Fleet. The Russian retreat was seen as an act of treason by the Armenians, who were left behind to fight the Turks on their own. Civil resistance, as well as Armenian guerilla insurgencies against the Turkish invaders lead to several massacres against Armenian civilians, for which both sides blame each other. The Armenians used these incidents for propaganda, comparing the massacres with the Armenian Genocide.
=== The Southern Front: The War against humanity continues ===
At the Southern Front in the Middle East, the Revisionist Powers kept struggling against the Allies. The last pockets of armed resistance in Lebanon were struck down, leaving the nation to be occupied by Israel and allied reinforcements. Syria also faced a total collapse, now that the troops of Assad and the last Hezbollah militants were cut off from Iranian supplies. This situation forced the Syrian forces to increase the use of chemical weapons, especially during the still ongoing siege of Damascus, as well as the Battle of Deir ez-Zor, leading to a re-emerging chemical arms race between the Revisionist Powers and the allied Arab coalition lead by the Saudis. During the entire war, both sides kept improving their chemical weapon stocks, and used them on several occasions, which caused unprecedented human suffrage among the civilian population. Iraqi and Iranian troops resorted to chemical weapon use as well during the Battle of the Euphrates and the Battle of the Iraqi-Iranian border. With this kind of escalation, the war against humanity kept escalating as well. The chemical weapons were not used just for military reasons, but were rather used against specific civilians targets, like the few remaining Shia neighborhoods in Syria, as well as hotspots of the Shia community in Iraq. Both of them came under attack by Saudi Arabia and its allied Sunni-militias, who committed countless atrocities against the civilian population, while reports were made, that Christian and Jewish communities along the frontline were massacred by not only Saudi and Saudi-allied forces, but also Iranian backed militias and even Turkish forces. The Turkish army, and its own allied militias were accused of using white phosphorus bombs against Kurdish targets, including civilian areas, which was dismissed by Erdoğan's leadership as anti-Turkish propaganda, produced by terrorists. In Iran, the mullah regime under the Ayatollah tried to send a message to their enemies, by publicly executing Sunnis, who were accused of being spies of the Allies. At the same time, Iranian and Iraqi troops started to dig in close to the Iranian border and the Euphrates region, in order to slow down the allied approach. Iran also fortify, its entire southern and western border, in preparation for a possible allied invasion. With most of Iran's naval forces being destroyed, except some close to shore defenses, the gulf states of Oman and Bahrain finally decided to officially declare war on Iran, while sending troops to the frontline.
Both of them already supported the Allies more or less directly, but were hesitant to fully join as long as Iran had control over the Persian Gulf. This left Qatar as the last Gulf state not supporting the allied cause, which caused severe tensions with Saudi Arabia and its Arab coalition. Accusations of Qatari financial support for Iran became loud, and allied requests of using Qatar as a staging ground for future amphibious invasions of Iran were denied, leading Saudi Arabia to once again implement a blockade against Qatar. This development not only created tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but also between Saudi Arabia and one of Qatar's closest allies, Turkey. Both nations engaged in rather hostile rhetoric with each other, with reports coming up that Saudi and Turkish forces were allegedly attacking each other in Syria, where their respective spheres of influence met. Meanwhile the western Allies started to experiment with new weapons in the Middle East, including the first widespread usage of flamethrowers in decades. The flamethrowers were used as a way of dislodging Iranian and overall Islamist troops, who were usually ready to engage in suicidal attacks. The choice fell therefore on flamethrowers, due to the fact that these weapons had success against the Japanese in WW2, who were also willing to conduct suicidal attacks, but fled when confronted with fire.
Saudi forces in the meantime started a full invasion of western Yemen, so that the Allies could secure the entrance to the Red Sea. With the help of the air force, the already thinned out Saudi forces were able to march to the outskirts of Sanaa, the main stronghold of the Iranian backed Houthi-rebels, but suffered heavy casualties during the campaign. The Houthis were able to inflict sensitive losses to the invading troops, by using Iranian made missiles and various kinds of drones, which was used by Saudi Arabia as a justification for indiscriminate bombardment of Houthi-held areas, causing mass-casualties among the civilian population. Starvation and disease were spreading in the already war-torn country, causing protests in the West against Saudi Arabia's actions. At the Israeli-Palestinian Front, the Invasion of the Gaza Strip was still going slow, due to not only armed resistance of Hamas and the Islamic Palestinian Jihad, but also lightly armed civilians, which forced the Israeli troops to show more restraint in order to avoid unnecessary conflict with the Arab coalition and the western allies. The mixture of armed militias and civil opposition caused dozens of civilian casualties on a daily basis, while the Israeli air force conducted precision strikes against Hamas strongholds. The Palestinian insurgency in the West Bank was met with heightened military presence of Israel, but it avoided airstrikes in this theater in order to avoid casualties in the Israeli settlements. Palestinian militias also increased their bomb-balloon campaign against Israel, which remained only symbolic in nature, since most of the bombs were shot down before reaching populated areas.
== 2027 ==
=== The Southern Front: The Kurdish Genocide and the Bombing of Gaza ===
The war in the Middle East meanwhile showed no signs of becoming less bloody, especially for the civilian population. While the Iranian and Iraqi lines were on the brink of collapse, Syria, after many years of bloodshed and destruction, finally was defeated with the Fall of Damascus. Allied troops from the Arab coalition, the UK, America, France and other western aligned nations marched into the city after one of the largest sieges in history, leading to weeks of urban clashes with hostile insurgents and snipers. Nonetheless, most of the city was conquered in a month, followed by an allied hunt for Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. With only some small pockets of Syrian resistance being scattered all over the country, the Allies increased their effort to fulfill their respective agendas. While Israel fully consolidated its gains on the Golan heights, Turkey began with the forceful resettlement of millions of Syrian refugees housing on its territory. Erdoğan's plan was proposed as a „final solution“ of all of Turkeys main struggles: the refugee crisis and the „Kurdish question“.
Most of Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan was already under Turkish occupation, but resistance of both Kurdish militias like the YPG and SDF, as well as Kurdish civilians remained present, which was accompanied by a new wave of Kurdish related terror attacks inside Turkey. Sympathizers of PKK and the „Freedom Falcons Kurdistan“ committed a series of bombings against police stations, military security posts, and bases, leading to the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers and policemen. A Kurdish-related terror attack during a AKP rally additionally killed several civilians, causing Erdoğan to proclaim the beginning of Turkeys „final solution“. This plan included the resettlement of Syrians, Arabs and assyrians in Turkeys conquered territories in Iraq and Syria, for which Erdoğan wants to completely dissolve Kurdistan, while „neutralizing“ all terrorists in the region. Turkish troops marched into every Kurdish majority cities, and captured all males older than 14, many of which were rounded up and executed on sight, under the justification that they were terrorist fighters who allegedly attacked Turkish forces and civilians. The Turkish air force increased its indiscriminate bombing campaign against Kurdish strongholds, in order to evict Kurds who refused to abandon their cities. Kurdish civilians who did not flee the scene, despite the aerial bombing and shelling, were gathered and forcefully deported further into the Syrian desert, which was reminiscent of the Armenian Genocide during WW1.
Because of this, many Kurdish civilians, especially women and children, were left in harsh conditions, without sufficient supplies of food, water and medicine, leading to the death of hundreds of civilians. These acts of violence could not be denied any longer by allied leadership, especially because reports about what has now become a Kurdish genocide became more and more widespread. As a result, protesters in Europe and the US called for the eviction of Turkey from the alliance, while Israel and the GCC joined in verbal condemnation of these actions. Any demands for Turkey halting its attacks were met with aggression and dismissal, leading the AKP regime to call its official allies as supporters of terrorism, saying it will never stop to do whatever it takes to eradicate it.
After increased violence between Kurds and Turks in the southeast of Turkey, the Turkish army even „occupied“ Kurdish dominated areas in its own territory, leading to civil war like uprisings and the incarceration of almost all male Kurds in the region, who were brought into detention camps in Turkeys north. Overall, one and a half million Kurds would be killed throughout the entire war. At the same time, violence between Israel and the Palestinian Territories escalated as well. The Gaza campaign remained in a kind of deadlock, meaning Israeli forces focused on attacking and destroying Hamas tunnels and weapon depots, while marching deeper into the Gaza Strip. After the death of Palestinian leader Abbas through targeted assissination, Hamas and the Palestinian jihad vowed to retaliate in the biggest fashion possible, while a general uproar went through the Palestinian public. That is why, during the high Jewish holiday of Pessah, Hamas-related extremists and militant Palestinians committed the one of the worst acts of terrorism in Israel's history. Extremists in the West Bank stormed houses of Israeli settlements at nightfall and massacred dozens of Israeli families during their celebrations, while multiple synagogues were attacked by suicide bombers and crude missiles.
In Jerusalem, almost a hundred militant Palestinians killed bystanders in the streets with knifes and improvised explosives, while a series of car bombs and suicide attacks lead to more deaths and chaos in the city. At the same time, hundreds of missiles were fired by Hamas and other terrorist organizations from the Gaza strip, and despite many being intercepted by Israel's iron dome defenses, the ammunition shortages of the last year still lead to many Israeli cities to be hit, although the casualty number of these attacks remained rather low. Israeli soldiers and security forces in Jerusalem engaged in street fights with Palestinian extremists the whole night, causing both Israeli and Palestinian civilians to be killed in the process. During this massacre against the Israelis, almost 200 civilians and dozens of security forces were killed, which was proclaimed by Hamas as being the „divine punishment“ of the Israelis.
The Iranian leadership and its followers publicly cheered for this massacre, as did anti-Israeli protestors all over the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Turkey. While the leadership of allied Arab nations tried to somewhat distance itself from these voices, Turkey and non-allied Qatar refused to condemn neither the massacre nor those who celebrated it. The western allies on the other hand expressed their shock and support for Israel, although the US was the most vocal in its condemnation of these massacres. Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett announced that Hamas would finally be rooted out and destroyed, which was followed by a sudden retreat of Israeli forces in the Gaza strip. A few hours later, waves of Israeli aircraft were ordered to attack every single potential Hamas hideout, whilst receiving support of a couple of American jets and bombers. The result was the de facto carpet bombardment of the Gaza Strip, that lasted for several hours. The bombardment was so intense, that almost no missiles could be fired by Palestinian extremists in response. At the end, 80% of all buildings in Gaza were completely destroyed, while almost a third of its entire population was killed. Most of members and leaders of Hamas did not survive this night, leading the organization to cease to exist. The nations that saw cheer for the Israeli massacre were also the ones aggressively condemning the bombardment of Gaza, with some people in said nations even demanding that there should be war waged against Israel. And despite their initial support, many western Allies, except the US expressed their shock about this disproportionate retaliation. The Israeli army then moved into Gaza and occupied the entire Strip, as well as the Westbank, leading the Palestinian Territories to be dissolved as such.
=== The Qatar campaign: Turkeys betrayal ===
With the Western Front coming into motion, and a new front being opened in South America, things remained tense in the Middle East. Allied troops kept closing in to the Iranian border in Iraq, causing an increased usage of chemical weapons to prevent the invasion of Iran, while the Allies were successful in their attempt to outflank and encircle the remaining Iraqi resistance. In order to relieve pressure from the land offensive, the allied CENTCOM main command in the Middle East decided to dare an amphibious invasion of Iran in the Persian Gulf, since most of Iran's navy was already destroyed. The only obstacle to prepare the invasion was the last Iranian ally in the region, Qatar, which still supported Iran with cash and illegal weapon sales outside of the region. This was enough reason for the Saudi regime lead by Muhammad bin Salman to consider military action to neutralize Qatar, while gaining access to its resources and its territory as a staging ground for the operation against Iran. The western allied leadership remained skeptical about the necessity of such an undertaking, especially since US troops were still stationed in Qatar. Nonetheless, the invasion of Qatar was reluctantly greenlit, leading Saudi, Arabian, jordanian and omani forces to attack into the gulf state. Turkey, which also had a military presence in Qatar, a close ally of the Erdoğan regime, demanded that the quote „illegal invasion“ of Qatar, or otherwise Turkey would see itself forced to protect its interests at the gulf. The warning was ignored, and despite fierce resistance of the rather well equipped qataris, the Allies were able to push deep into the state very quickly. US troops stationed in Qatar left their housing to prevent retaliation, and joined their Arab counterparts in the ongoing offensive. Qatar's modern, and often western weaponry made the allied advance very costly, despite additional support coming from the few British aircraft stationed in Qatar before the campaign. The Qatari army pulled back and established a defensive line further north to protect Doha, allowing the Allies to consolidate a large fraction of their gains. The allied forces also closed in to Turkish troops, that now took position along the qataris in the defense around Doha. Allied calls for a Turkish retreat were ignored, and after Arab, American and British forces kept advancing towads the qatari lines, they were attacked by Turkish forces without warning. This resulted in heated exchanges of fire between officially allied troops, causing the deaths of a few hundred Arab and American forces. The attack lead to a enormous outrage from a majo of allied countries, while the GCC and US leadership demanded Turkey to withdraw from Qatar and give reparations to the Allies, which was firmly rejected by the Erdoğan regime. Erdoğan instead claimed that allied troops attacked their Turkish counterparts first, and that allied support for the Qatar campaign would equate state terrorism. The allied command, as well as NATO specifically summoned an emergency meeting, in order to decide what to to with Turkeys rogue behavior. At the same time, a British destroyer in the eastern Medditeranean was hit and severely damaged by a submarine of unknown origin, which was consequently hunted down and destroyed by allied anti-submarine assets. As it turned out through careful examination, the vessel in question was a Russian one, which caught the allied leadership in the region by surprise. Since there was no possibility that a Russian submarine could have entered the Medditeranean through the Suez or Gibraltar chokepoints, accusations were made that Turkey would allow them to enter through the Bosporus Strait.
Other NATO and GCC members also used the emergency meetings for speaking up against the Kurdish Genocide, which was still occurring in Syria, Iraq and partially Turkey itself, causing heated disputes on public stages. Erdoğan and his subordinates aggressively denounced these accusations, and repeated their talking points abo ut how the West would support terrorism and that Turkey would protect its interests by the actions taken over the course of the war. While allied representatives engaged in severe arguments, pro-allied and pro-Turkish demonstrators clashed with one another outside of the conference settings, leading to violence and injuries among the protesters. There were also reports of Turkish security forces also participating in the clashes, but not to drive the sides apart, but allegedly to attack anti-Erdoğan protesters of the other side. The betrayal of Turkish troops in Qatar, the Turkish support for Revisionist Powers like Pakistan, Libya and Somalia, as well as the Kurdish Genocide and the apparent collusion with Russian forces forced the Allies to ultimately eject Turkey from NATO and the overall war alliance, leading all financial and military support for Turkey to cease. Erdoğan condemned these actions, and characterized them as a „declaration of war“, as well as the „West showing its real face“. While the Allies officially declared that Turkish troops were no longer seen as friendly forces, and that any action against allied soldiers would be retaliated, there were still calls claiming that there is no desire for confrontation, and that the Allies would stay out of Turkeys way as long as it would do the same. Turkey on the on the other hand declared, that allied troops would from now on be seen as hostile forces, and that Turkey would never give in to any western demands. Violent protests between anti-Turkish demonstrators and pro-AKP European nationals of Turkish descent emerged all over Europe, with Germany, the Netherlands and Austria being affected the most.
Racist attacks against Turkish institutions were reported, while on the other hand Kurdish institutions and political centers were attacked by Erdoğan sympathizers. This caused the situation between the West and Turkey to become far more tense, while there were small allied gains in Qatar, the place were this crisis originated. After additional missile bombardment coming from the gulf, the Allies were able to approach Qatar also by sea, forcing the qataris to abandon Dukhan and Al Khor, leaving Doha as the last stronghold of the gulf state. The immense pressure, and the allied numerical advantage lead to first offers by the qataris for a ceasefire, which could culminate in negotiations with the Allies about a truce. At the same time, Turkey opened its borders in the west for around 1 million Syrian, Iraqi and Azeri refugees, and pushed them towards Europe with deliberate pressure coming from Turkeys security forces, as retaliation for western actions against Turkey. Greece and Bulgaria, who both fortified their respective borders with Turkey over the last few years during the war, were confronted with thousands of refugees trying to enter their territory, many of them engaging in violent clashes with security forces, while Turkish forces actively helped the situation to escalate by destroying border fences and attacking Greek forces through the crowds. While Greek and allied authorities warn Turkey against further hostilities, Erdoğan threatened the Allies that anything he deems as an aggression against Turkish interests will be seen as a declaration of war.
== 2028 ==
=== The Southern Front: Allied Advance against Iran ===
Another Revisionist Power struggled to hold off the allied advance: Iran. The Islamic republic entrenched itself along its entire western border, with the exception of its frontier with Turkey, while also creating heavily fortified defenses along its southern coastline in preparation of allied amphibious assaults. After years of brutal fighting, most of Iranian ally Iraq fell into the hands of the Allies, leaving only pockets of resistance by Shia militias, Islamists and few Iraqi military operatives in urban areas, like Baghdad, which fell after a month of bloody fighting. While Arabian forces of the GCC, supported by American, French, British and Egyptian troops shelled the Iranian border region, allied air forces increased their strikes against military, economic and infrastructural targets inside Iran, with Israeli aircraft putting additional focus on Iranian nuclear facilities. Despite official claims prior and during the war, Iran ramped up its nuclear program, and actively sought to militarize it more aggressively since the beginning of WW3. Iran suffered heavy blows against its nuclear program, due to relentless Israeli air, missile and cyber strikes targeted against facilities like Natanz, Isfahan and Arak. While Irans only uranium mine in Bandar Abbas was also hit early on, the mullah regime used the early advances of the Revisionist Powers to relocate its nuclear weapons program to compounds deep inside the Iranian mountains, making those new facilities hard to dislodge. The hasty relocation, and the limited material, technology and infrastructure available made those institutions often rather improvised and less efficient. This was the reason why, despite Iran using the maximum capacity of its remaining centrifuges, its nuclear program only progressed very slowly, leading it to still be in its infancy in 2027. Due to the already limited technology and resources, Iran sought to develop uranium instead of plutonium based weapons, despite those being less destructive and needing more fissile matter to function. The process of minimizing any potential device also proved to be an immense struggle for Iran, which is why it sought support by the North Koreans. China and Russia looked the other way when it came to Iranian nuclear ambitions, since they were rather critical of such a development, but ultimately stayed directly and indirectly complacent to it. North Korea and even Russia also provided uranium for Iran, which was transported through the central Asian republics, and therefore exclusively through revisionist territory.
Iran originally planned to develop nuclear warheads for its Shahab-3 missile, but due to the struggle of minimizing any potential warheads so that they could fit into the missile, as well as the impending allied invasion, Iran explored other delivery systems as well. That is why there were programs aimed at developing uranium bombs, while there was another one testing the possibility of nuclear gun shells. Iranian scientists were pressed to assemble a somewhat functional device for future testing, while at the same time, the pressure on the Iranian border was intensified. Allied aircraft was able to reach increasingly deeper into Iranian territory, while on the ground, the fighting between allied coalition forces and Iranian troops backed by Shia militias and other proxies became extremely brutal. Poison gas was used by both sides, causing horrendous wounds and casualties among both the military and civilian population of the immediate area. Iranian border forces, supported by the Revolutionary Guard and the al-Quds troops, laid out miles of barbed wire and land mines, while pounding enemy forces in Iraq and Kuwait with pre-positioned mortars and artillery pieces. Meanwhile, the systematic internment and liquidation of Shias in Saudi Arabia and Saudi occupied territory, as well as Sunnis in Iran continued, with both sides publicly executing Shia and Sunni prisoners respectively, as an ideological attack against the enemy. Both sides also run detention camps for POWS and members of their respective conflicting group of Islamic belief, leading Saudi Arabia to have prison and execution camps in the Arabian Desert, while Iran still run its detention camps it built in the Zagros mountains since the beginning of the war. Meanwhile, the Allies successfully landed troops on the Iranian coastline of the Strait of Hormuz, leading to heavy fighting in Bandar Abbas and Minab, while Bandar Lengeh became the first Iranian city to fall into allied hands.
The allied invasion of Iran also caused a rift inside the Iranian society. While the invasion inflamed the already very present anti-allied sentiment among the Iranian people, with tens-of thousands of them now taking to arms, thousands more went to the streets to riot against the mullah regime. Those riots were struck down with brute force by the Revolutionary Guard, which killed almost a thousand of protesters in just a day of upheaval. Iranians loyal to the regime also started to attack rioters, whom they deemed as traitors, culminating in civil war like hostilities in several regions of Iran. These clashes were encouraged by allied intelligence, which was the reason why multiple westerners were captured and publicly executed as well, allegedly for being allied spies. At the same time, allied forces supported by the Yemeni puppet government advanced further against the Iranian backed Houthis, leading the rebels to loose significant amounts of territory, while Sanaa faced a long, protracted siege, with horrific consequences for the civilian population. Tensions also grew in the north of the wider region, where Turkish troops occupying Syrian and Iraqi territories were engaged in several standoffs with allied Arabian and western forces. Both sides accused each other of opening fire, after Kurdish civilians tried to escape into allied held territory, which Turkish troops tried to prevent by shooting at the fugitives. The resulting counterfire of Arabian, but also American, British and French forces lead to a couple of casualties on both sides, which caused increased hostile rhetoric between the former NATO allies.
== 2029 ==
=== The Southern Front: Iran collapses ===
Despite Turkeys entrance into the war as an official Revisionist Power, the Allies still achieved more and more successes against another enemy: Iran. The fighting along the western Iranian border proved to be immensely costly for both sides, who suffered tens of thousands of casualties in a relatively short period of time. Despite Iranian fortifications, miles of barbed wire and land mines, the Allies managed to push into the flatlands of soutwest Iran with the help of air and missile strikes, as well as amphibious and airborne assaults along Iranian beachheads. As a result, Arab, American, Israeli, French and British forces managed to break through Iranian defenses and taking Ahvaz as the first Iranian City during this war, forcing the Iranians to pull back and reposition in the Zagros mountains, turning them into natural fortresses. The resulting mountain warfare became very costly as well for the Allies, due to continuous assaults from Iranian troops using shoulder launched missiles and artillery to slow down the movement of the allied coalition. The Allies increasingly had difficulties to utilize their advantage in standoff weaponry and recon assets, due to the natural conditions of the mountainous terrain. At the same time, allied forces continued with their amphibious invasion of Iran at its southern coast, leading Shiraz to fall into allied hands, since most of Irans forces were geared towards the invading forces in the west. Fasa and Iranschar soon fell as well, but the allied advance became stagnant afterwards, as soon as the allied coalition pushed deeper into the Zagros mountains. After the taking of Shiraz and Ahvaz, allied forces targeted Isfahan as the next center of their offensive, which was accompanied by American and Israeli precision airstrikes, as well as US and Saudi missile attacks coming from ground bases on the Arabian Peninsula and naval forces in the Persian Gulf. These allied advances forced the mullah regime to relocate more forces to Teheran, in order to assure the defense of the capital, while allied losses during the entire Zagros campaign eclipsed US losses of WW1 as a whole. The continuous defeats of the Iranian army and revolutionary guard, as well as years of blockade and oppression from the regime caused riots and uprisings in most of Iran's larger cities. Just like it was the case in Nicaragua and Venezuela, US and Israeli intelligence agents additionally inflamed the civil unrest by spreading allied propaganda and disinformation, while revealing the true extent of Irans military defeats to a larger portion of its population.
As a result, parts of the mobilized populous, that enjoyed only a fraction of training before being sent to the front, started to go rogue and protest against the regime of Raisi and Khamenei. The riots lead to various violent clashes between Iranian civilians and the Revolutionary Guard, which accused the rioters to be American assets and traitors. Outside of the Middle East, ethnic Iranians of countless nationalities also took to the streets to protest, either against the allied campaign against Iran or to protest against the mullah regime itself. These protests, that mainly happened in Europe and the US lead to clashes between regime critics and supporters, while various Jewish cultural centers and synagogues were attacked by Iran-sympathizers. Additionally, Iran increased its effort of asymmetric warfare, by activating more and more sleeper-cells, that conducted devastating terror attacks in Latin America, Europe, allied Arab countries and to a lesser extent Israel and the US. Meanwhile, the last remaining nuclear facilities of Iran, where Iranian scientists tried to weaponize Iran's nuclear program over the course of the war, where localized by American and Israeli recon-assets and intelligence units. Since the majority of Iran's air force was destroyed, Israeli and American special forces, accompanied by attack helicopters and multi-role aircraft, performed a surprise attack on these facilities, leading to heavy fighting between the Iranian forces guarding those installations and the allied special ops.
The allied forces managed to penetrate the Iranian defenses of the nuclear installations, leading the Iranians inside to detonate the facilities themselves, in order to prevent the Allies from acquiring Iranian nuclear technology. Other installations that were tasked with enriching uranium, and were relocated to enforced bunkers, were destroyed by allied aircraft using bunker busting ammunition. Simultaneously, the violent crackdown of the Islamist Revolutionary Guard against the rioting citizens of Iran lead to almost civil war-like clashes, which further dispersed the attention of the Iranian regime and military. Despite the entrenchment of the Iranian military in and around Teheran, protests erupted even inside the Iranian capital, leading to heavy clashes between rioters and Iranian security forces. Some fractions of the Iranian army, that were mobilized for only a few months, started to break away and sympathize with the protesters, leading to the first cases of infighting among the Iranian military. An ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Iran additionally weakened the Iranian military and all of these factors were the reason that the Allies managed to push deeper into central Iran, despite costly fighting int the Zagros mountains. The Allies knew they would not be able to break the defenses of the highly fortified and densely populated Iranian capital, and instead split their forces up. While on part kept advancing towards Teheran, using missiles and long range artillery to pound the Iranian defenses, the other instead kept encircling Iranian strongholds in central Iran, in conjunction with the invasion forces in the south. This way, the Allies could take out as much of Irans military infrastructure, while forcing the armies around Teheran to engage in a war of attrition, hoping that the riots will facilitate the collapse of the mullah regime.
Allied forces in the southeast of Iran also managed to close up with Indian forces reaching the western border of Pakistan, while fighting erupted in Teheran. Rioters and rogue Iranian military members engaged in street fights with the Revolutionary Guard, while the rogue forces even deployed tanks and anti-aircraft missiles they were able to capture before from forces loyal to the regime. As a result, Ruhani and the mullahs completely lost control over the situation in Teheran, which caused more and more Iranian cities to declare that they would not obey the regime anymore. Allied special forces and intelligence agents used this chaos to mix themselves into the crowds of protesters, helping them to assault several bases of the revolutionary guard, causing it to use deadly force against its own population in various cities. Since hundreds of Iranian civilians have been killed that way, this escalation helped to turn even more, mostly young Iranians against the regime, despite still rampant animosity towards the Allies. As a result, the loss of control for the regime grew massively, while reports came up of Iranian soldiers starting to surrender in several villages. The fighting in Teheran meanwhile became more intense, and resembled more urban warfare instead of civil unrest, leading rioters and rogue military members to occupy various areas of the city. Since the Iranian defenders had to focus more and more on the chaos inside Teheran, they increasingly lacked the manpower and resources needed to prevent the Allies from closing in.
As soon as the allied armies reached the outskirts of Teheran, while allied airstrikes became more frequent and intense, the Iranian military command and Revolutionary Guard decided that the Ayatollah and Irans clerical leadership is not safe anymore, and started to evacuate the most important members of the mullah regime out of Teheran. Despite the ongoing fighting in and around Teheran, the core of the Iranian regime managed to escape towards Maschhad, close to the turkmenic border, from where it declared that Iran will never stop to fight until the very end, and that its people would be willing to become martyrs. However, since the regime fled Teheran, and lost most of its control over the population, more and more members of the Iranian military started to disobey Chameneis and Raisis orders, which lead to the total collapse of Iran's military apparatus. While fighting inside Teheran and many other cities continued, the Allies managed to consolidate their presence in Iran, pushing it effectively out of the war.