"A passing bomber"

 

Heard an interesting "rumor" from a friend yesterday, one of whose relatives is said to be with an unnamed outfit, from an unidentified armed force, that's doing interesting things in western Syria, sending out reconnaissance teams to keep an eye on who's who and what's what.  No names, no confirmations, and all the usual caveats.

It would appear that a reconnaissance team was sitting on top of a hill in western Syria, when what to their wondering eyes should appear but a convoy of several dozen heavy transporters, heading west as fast as they could go towards the Iraqi border.  Of even greater interest was that they'd seen this same convoy heading east, towards Lebanon, a week or so before;  and the cargoes involved were clearly large rockets or missiles, plus some other heavy weaponry.  The assumption was that these were Iranian weapons destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Due to the sudden collapse of the Syrian government, it's presumed that the convoy could no longer get through, and was therefore being recalled to its source so that its cargoes could be redeployed.

It would further appear (if unsubstantiated "rumor" be correct) that said reconnaissance team called up "a passing bomber" and various and sundry other aircraft that are hammering the living daylights out of ISIS and its sympathizers.  Upon learning that an arrow-straight road leading straight to the Iraqi border, and clearly visible from the air, was now occupied by a convoy of heavy movers with "interesting" cargoes, the aircraft in question are said to have taken a sudden and very active interest in the highway.  The resulting secondary explosions were described as "tactical-nuke-size fireballs", which elicited prolonged, admiring and possibly profane comments from the hilltop observers.  Apparently a good time was had by all except the (surviving) convoy personnel.

I'm informed that it looks as if those cargoes of donations to fundamentalist Islamic terrorist solidarity will no longer be returning to sender.  Pity about that . . .

Needless to say, all this is purely the fruit of my imagination, there's no truth in the "rumor", and all the usual excuses.  Nobody involved would dream of breaching Opsec.  Not at all.  Not hardly.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  Yes, I mixed up directions (thanks to posting late at night while very tired).  In the above post, for "East" read "West", and vice versa.  Thanks to all the commenters who caught it.