the platoon lieutenant reported. “The trucks and armored vehicles are all abandoned. We saw some stragglers camped out a few kilometers away, carrying wounded, but they ran off as we approached. They did not appear to be carrying weapons, so we let them go.” The commander of Kerki Army Air Base glanced at his lead helicopter pilot. “What did you see?” he asked. “The same, sir,” the pilot reported. “About a dozen light armored vehicles, four small tanks, two large main battle tanks, two dozen supply trucks, the two towed antiaircraft weapons—all scattered across the road and abandoned. Some appeared to be torched.” “We did see evidence of scouts or infiltrators on the base, sir,” the captain in charge of base security added. “Perhaps they got a look at our preparations for a counterattack and fled.” “Did you see any of their pickups?” “We found a few nearby, broken down and abandoned, but all the rest of them are gone,” the scout platoon leader reported.
