The Reclamation and Liberation

[Tivona Shneider]

Eretzora at War

Eretzoran Belays, with financial assistance from the Belay government in Gorodlvov ,carried out two successful attacks against Eretzoran civilians, in hospitals in both Ayalon and Kiryat Shlosha. Authorities were quick to quarantine both locations and those in proximity to the attacks. The success of both attacks, which occurred simultaneously, assisted authorities in preventing further attacks that were due to take place moments later. Exactly thirty one further plots were thwarted across Eretzora, in other hospitals and schools across the nation. Authorities have arrested over fifty individuals related to the attacks, all Eretzoran Belays, and expect to make more arrests within the next few hours.

Prime Minister Chava Svetlova, who had, since being elected the country's Head of Government last year, made improving relations between Eretzoran Alsterenis and Belays one of the utmost priorities of her administration, had long been a proponent of peace and wary of those advocating war between Eretzora and its immediate neighbour, Belayazemlya, led by Ramzan Igorevich. Armed conflict with Belayazemlya should, according to Svetlova, be avoided at all costs and most certainly be pursued as a last resort, even if Eretzora had been gearing up for a future conflict with Belayazemlya for at least a decade.  She had been informed a day prior to the attacks that war breaking out between Belayazemlya and Eretzora was no longer a mere possibility, but it was now most definitely an inevitability. Both the Ministry of Defence and the country's main intelligence organisation had been closely monitoring the movements of the Belays for months, particularly since the latest increase in hostile rhetoric coming from Gorodlvov, and had concluded that war would break out in a matter of days. After consulting with her closest and most trusted advisers (those with security clearance, of course), as well as her counterpart in Severyane, the Prime Minister decided against launching a preemptive strike, even though she was well aware that by doing so she would be potentially jeopardising her career regardless of the outcome of the upcoming war.

Although the regions bordering Belayazemlya were by far the least populated regions of Eretzora, hundreds of thousands of civilians still resided there. Since war was literally "just around the corner", evacuating as many civilians as possible from these regions was a matter of the utmost importance.  The Prime Minister instructed the Eretzoran Defence Forces to begin evacuation procedures immediately, starting with the most populous Alstereni-majority communities in the region referred internationally as the Yarv Valley. The security cabinet unanimously voted in favour of evacuating the Belay-majority areas of the region also, albeit at a later stage (after the last Alstereni had been safely relocated). It was widely believed that an invading Belay army would likely use Eretzoran Belays as human shields in clashes with the EDF and it was thus in Eretzora's best interests that the area be depopulated to prevent such a scenario. EDF divisions already stationed in the Yarv began evacuating civilians immediately, as other units headed towards the region to assist preparations for war. Mothers, children and the elderly were the priority, since all able men and women in the reserves would be called to serve in the forces.

It was agreed that in the event that Belay forced overwhelmed EDF ground troops in the Yarv, the region would be temporarily surrendered in the initial stages of the war so as not to result in too many fatalities. The area would, after all, be difficult to defend against an invading Belay army due to the fact that Belay mountains overlooked much of the region. The air force would be employed almost immediately, from bases throughout the country (outside the Yarv), to wipe out the Belay air force in the east. Supply routes would then be targeted. EDF infantry units would defend the Eretzoran border and push forward to the best of their ability. Air force units would back these units up by bombing Belay forces in Belayazemlya and the Yarv in the event the Belays successfully captured the valley. Commanders had been given concrete instructions to win this by employing whatever means necessary in order to expel the invading forces.

((ooc: BB and I discussed these points and agreed on the above.))