Kulge Desert Blues

Kulge Desert Blues Greater Kulge Conflict
From top left clockwize; Puge-Tatar RHDE armor engages rebels at the Battle of the Pyramids, Carsodonian CF-37 engages rebels with cluster munitions, HTI main battle tanks in combat formation, and an Eubudist technical fires on Carsodonian attack aircraft.
Period
August 15th, 2166 - December 28th, 2176
Location		Kulge Desert, Kolus
Result		Carsodonia absorbed into Iroa Formation of Ba'athist Wuste Re-Formation of Puge-Tatar
Belligerents
State Armed Forces			Rebels
Carsodonia Iroa Puge-Tatar Eubudists (from 2170) Stahl Sieg			Hayat Tajdid Iridia Eubudists (until 2170) Ba'athist Wuste Stahl Sieg
Strength
Military Fighters Bombers Tanks SPAA			Military Fighters Bombers Tanks SPAA
Casualties and Losses
Military Fighters Bombers Tanks SPAA			Military Fighters Bombers Tanks SPAA

The Kulge Desert Blues, also known as the Kulge Conflict refers to a time of immense upheval in the Kulge Desert encompassing multiple regional conflicts from 2164-2176. Those concerned include the successful Wuster Neo-Ba'athist revolution, the Hayat Tajdid Iridia Insurgency in Iroa and Carsodonia resulting in the collapse and absorption of the latter into the former, the collapse of the Pan-Vanadian Commonwealth into civil war among its component tribes, civil unrest in Nuvastia, and the re-establishment of the Principality of Puge-Tatar.

Background

The Collapse of the Pan-Vanadian Commonwealth

By 2164, the Pan-Vanadian experiment had failed horribly. In the years following the unification of the great Kolus desert by the Pan-Vanadian Commonwealth, the nation had experienced terrorist bombings, crime and corruption almost from its inception. The Pan-Vanadian government operated by local provincial leaders meeting in one Vanadian Council, but few could ever agree with one another. Those with oil and mineral rights horded them and refused to share with those less fortunate. Those with water shared but quickly became hostile when the oil and mineral producing governances attempted to seize rights through land buyouts. The great inter-government fighting reflected in the streets and cities of Pan-Vanadia, and as the 2160s waned, despite the efforts of the Zokesian government to solve or quell the strife, the Pan-Vanadian commonwealth slipped into tribal warfare once again.

Nuvastian 2169 Event

Around 2164, similar strife occured in the Nuvastian Republic, with fighting breaking out for control between the pro-Aontas Bastian Confederacy and the Nuvastian ethnic majority. The fighting reached a boiling point in 2169 when a sinkhole caused by a suspected dirty bomb razed the Nuvastian capitol city, throwing the state into chaos.

Carsodonian Blues

Carsodonia's economy was faltering and minority rule made the rulers of the nation increasingly unpopular with the masses.

Igniting the Conflict

A group of Ultranonationalist Insurgents called Hayat Tajdid Iridia (Resurgence of Iridia) launches attacks across Iroa, Carsodonia and limitedly, Wuste with the goal of forming an Iridian ethnostate. They open their campaign with a bunch of sabotage attacks, attempted assassinations against politicians and bombings of important political buildings. At the same time, they quickly consolidate in rural areas in Carsodonia and Iroa They're quickly expelled from the cities but they put up stubborn resistance in the mountains and deserts, Carsodonia has a more difficult time dealing with them so they allow Iroan troops to cross the border and jointly control the highways

Carsodonian Collapse

The war basically turns into a slog from here, slowly bombing and rooting out cells in the deserts, and then in the northern mountains

Carsodonia effectively becomes subordinate in the latter years of the campaign

Wurst Blues

Ba'athist Resurgence

at the same time that this is happening,there's a Ba'athist revolution in Wuste

Nufayat Blues

Eubudist Cause

Religious fundamentalist members of the Jalalzai tribe that inhabited the foothills of the Ghaznav range west of the Iroan border had rallied around the scholar Awalmir Karwan Jalalzai, also known under the nom de guerre Abdulkhaliq Nufayati. In 2169, they began a guerilla campaign against their neighbors with the goal of re-establishing the Caliphal Zahirid province of Nufayat under a similar traditional Eubudic government. Part of this campaign included an attempted reconquest of their ancestral lands in the mountains, bringing them into direct conflict with the Iroan and Carsodonian forces currently struggling to put down the HTI Insurgency. By the end of the year, the so-called "Eubudi Inqilab " (eubudic revolution) had seized control over a fourth of the Ghaznav heights overlooking the oil town of Fadil.

Establishment of Eubudist Al-Nufayat

The EI also counted the ethnonationalist Hayat Tajdid Iroa and Stahl Sieg mercenaries among their enemies, disavowing the ethnic-based violence against of non-Iridian minorities. In 2171, they proved effective at the battle of Taul, driving HTI out of the settlement and into the Qara mountains. The Iroan-Carsodonian alliance took note, and approached with a ceasefire in exchange for their support against the insurgents. The EI accepted under pressure, noting the coalition buildup on their borders and the partial reversal of their earlier gains in in Khwaraz.

With the destruction of the last of the HTI holdouts and withdrawal of SS units in 2173, the question of how to handle the outstanding insurgents still occupying Iroan-claimed territory divided the 13th Mojlis. Concerns about past hostilities, recent terrorist attacks and laws restricting freedoms promised by the Iroan constitution were offset by war-weariness, economic burden and the trouble of rebuilding and integrating the collapsed Carsodonian rump-state into the republic. The agreement reached saw the EI withdraw from Khwaraz and turn over 50% of the arms they had amassed during the conflict in exchange for governance of the newly created Velayat of Nufayat as an autonomous region of Iroa.

Rebirth of Puge-Tatar

The surviving members of the Royal House I'l Sil of Puge-Tatar returned to Wardia in 2169 to guide the troubled state in pushing back the violence that was stemming over the border from Pan-Vanadia. With funding from the Zokeisan central bank, the new Wardian Puge-Tatar hired the Stahlsieg once again at the lament of the Zokesians. The D'alawar equipped itself with surplus aircraft from the region and fought a successful campaign to regain its old borders through counterinsurgency operations thanks to close air support.

Battle of the Pyramids

A turning point for the Puge-Tatar campaign came in 2175 at the Battle of the Pyramids, where a small force of RHDE main battle tanks was ambushed by a large concentration of rebel forces. Through effective close air support from A-87 Twin Firescout attack aircraft and the Stahl Sieg's 22nd SS. "Reine Karsodonier," the rebels were broken and their leadership scattered to the east, effectively marking the end of conflict in the Western Kulge desert region.

A New Vanadian State

By 2176, the state of Greater Puge-Tatar had been formed and stretched 50km east and 40 km north of its old borders, and its influence reached deep into the heart of the desert. In the place of the old Pan-Vanadian Commonwealth, the Taci Vanadiya Idare Edilir was formed as a vassal state to the Principality of Puge-Tatar, cementing their control of the region under a centralized state.

Aftermath

Casualties

too damn many