Situation Report
Location(s): Southern Finland
Known countries and factions operating
Sahrani Extremists / Sahrani Liberation Army
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Sahranithe Extremistsrecent attack (image)
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Situation Report
The planned peace conference between the standing Sahrani Government and the Sahrani Liberation Army to be held in Finland has been intervened by Liberation Army Extremists. Sporadic reports of insurgents taking up positions across the provincial area the conference was to be held in has been confirmed with first responders and military troops sustaining heavy contact within the first 72 hours of the response. Accommodation used by the Government's delegation was confirmed by OSINT to be attacked by a car bombing, the Liberation Army's contribution to the conference was also struck in a separate attack. While the status of the Government delegation remains unknown the Liberation Army was confirmed to be among those killed. An emergency response force has been organised to minimizeminimise the damage already done, with a blockade established to prevent further movements outbound by the extremists.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed credible intelligence British mediators in attendance to the conference remain unaccounted for, despite military and police blockades, the extremists have secured key transit pipelines out of the area including; the Nakarinmäki regional airport, Harvajanniemi military air station and the MSR that spans across the middle of the area of operations. Finland has approved the deployment of a British Task-Force to deploy wHarvajanniemiHarvajanniemi military air stationfithstation with the primary objective to resecurere-secure any Britons caught in the crossfire. The Royal Navy has relocated vessels originally involved in Kinetic operations (REL: OP VERITABLE) northbound to Finnish coastal waters in order to prepare troop deployments.
History of the Sahrani
Sahrani was founded in the late 1800s by Spanish sailors en route to the Americas. Indigenous communities were gradually integrated into Spanish colonial culture. Sporting religious keypoints in the north with a mix of Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity alongside a deeply Islamic south, existing in harmony lead to the early years of Sahrani being largely peaceful and the island remained neutral during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 despite calls to fight. During the Cold War, the USSR established influence on Sahrani, supporting the Northern Sahrani Divisionists (NSD) against the American-backed Sahrani Conservative Party (SCP) in a proxy political fight for control of the country. Though following the collapse of the USSR, the NSD lost support and faded from public view without economic backing from the USSR, it is widely suspected that some former NSD members became radicalized and formed the early core of the Sahrani Liberation Army (SLA) following the arrest of Jorge Ingrid in 1993.
The SLA began as a small political splinter group of the NSD but quickly turned to extremism. In 1999, widespread unrest erupted after a teenager was accidentally killed during riots following the assassination of President-Elect Jose Alamos III, sparking the first Sahrani Civil War. The conflict lasted fifteen years, ending in 2014 with a ceasefire that included partial disarmament of the National Guard and police forces. The SLA’s political wing, the Sahrani Workers Party (SWP), gained legitimacy while sporadic attacks by imitators and remaining insurgents persisted, declaring the disarmament a victory. In May 2023, elements of the Sahrani national guard engaged in armed conflict against the military and government, following alignment with the SLA the second civil war began. It was revealed that the SLA had embedded personnel in key functions across the national guard in order to systematically secure equipment. With a total media blackout, ordered by the government and military in efforts to maintain operational security. Aid packages and peacekeepers were deployed to Sahrani to support RACS' ongoing counterinsurgency efforts, however despite this damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties continued to grow. Officials approved the usage of private security companies to support security efforts ontop of a growing foreign military presence. The SLA operated a series of high-stakes strikes, ranging from their capture of the nation's general hospital to the full-scale takeover of the RSN Atlantic, an aircraft carrier operated by RACS' naval wing. Though the RSN Atlantic was taken back within 48 hours by NATO Special Forces supporting RACS' counterinsurgency mission. Like the national guard it was revealed that RSN personnel attached to the Atlantic had ties to the SLA and the takeover was planned to leverage control to SWP.
In August of 2024 the SLA launched a series of follow-up attacks in retaliation for the capture of territory made by RACS in the mountainous north of the country. Persisting in their insurgency despite the arrest of their leader, Julian Hernandez. President Juan Andrei declared an order to rearm the police and place the national guard in a hybrid oversight between the government and military. The SLA continues to wage its war in Sahrani, though in a smaller capacity, NATO troops in Sahrani were rotated out for UN Peacekeepers as a sign of the change both politically and to ease civilian concerns of flashbacks to their recent first civil conflict.
The Sahrani Liberation Army
The Sahrani Liberation Army (SLA) is an extremist-socialist insurgent group, widely believed to have been formed by former members of the Soviet-backed Northern Sahrani Divisionists (NSD) following their radicalization. Initially a small political splinter group from its political counterpart, first rising to prominence during the fifteen-year Sahrani civil war that began in 1999, using looted military surplus and guerrilla tactics to strike against the Royal Armed Corps of Sahrani (RACS). Its political wing, the Sahrani Workers Party (SWP), provided the group with a degree of legitimacy while insurgent activity continued in the background.
In the second civil war, beginning in 2023, the SLA leveraged embedded personnel within the National Guard and Navy to secure key military depots and orchestrate high-profile attacks, including the capture of the Sahrani General Hospital and the RSN Atlantic, an aircraft carrier. Even after the arrest of leader Julian Hernandez in 2024, the group has persisted in limited operations, maintaining influence in northern Sahrani through rogue National Guard units and ties to the SWP with sporadic attacks in the south.
Image credits:
- J. Hill (twitter)