After storming the city, the rebels' advance slowed down.

The main thing is that the militias, who have little combat effectiveness, have been engaged in sabotage, such as blowing up bridges and blocking roads by blowing down buildings.

Comparatively speaking, the fighting was not very fierce.

As long as they encountered the rebels, especially the vanguard led by tanks, the militia took the initiative to abandon the guarded streets without putting up the slightest resistance.

There is nothing surprising that the militia did not have weapons capable of dealing with tanks in their hands.

Not to mention the anti-tank missiles that are difficult to operate, there are not even bazookas such as the AT-4 and RPG-7, which are easy to learn and master.

If you can't destroy the tank, how can you fight?

After several hours of fierce fighting, the rebels lost only one main battle tank, and it was not destroyed by anti-tank weapons, but when crossing a small bridge, the militia detonated the explosives installed under the bridge deck, which blew up the bridge deck, and the tank fell into the river and finally sank to the bottom of the river.

With this lesson, the rebels did not cross the bridge again.

When you encounter a river, you will wade directly across the river.

There are several small rivers in the city of Nasiriyah, but none of them are very wide and shallow enough for M1A1 to cross without preparation.

In fact, the biggest problem for the rebels is that the city is too large.

Nasiriyah is the second largest city in southern Iraq, second only to Basra in terms of urban area, with nearly 800,000 inhabitants before the outbreak of the civil war.

During the Saddam Hussein period, Nasiriyah had more than a million inhabitants.

Even if all goes well, it will take enough time and enough troops to occupy all of Nasiriyah.

What's more, not everything is going smoothly yet.

By about 1 a.m., the rebels had seized the eastern and southern cities, and the militia resistance had become more violent, not more combative, but much more numerous.

Of course, this is also normal.

The militia has been on the retreat, with not very many casualties, and after losing almost half of the city, it is equivalent to doubling the density of its forces.

At this time, the rebels who stormed the city had at least two brigades, one of which was the main brigade.

In order to speed up the pace and capture all of Nasiriyah before dawn, the rebels committed reserves, an infantry brigade that had been on standby in the eastern suburbs.

In addition, there was a brigade that advanced westward in Nasiriyah.

The rebels' intentions were clear, to quickly capture Nasiriyah, cut off the supply routes of the government forces in Samawa, and complete the encirclement of the government forces.

Why occupy Nasiriyah at night?

Let's not forget that the convoy carrying supplies has already departed from Basra and is expected to arrive in Nasiriyah around dawn.

This convoy not only served the Saudi troops who had already moved west, but also sent extremely scarce supplies to the government forces in Samawah.

As long as they can capture Nasiriyah and stop this convoy, the government forces in Semavo will be finished.

And, of course, the Saudi troops who rushed to the rescue.

Can a soldier still fight without provisions?

In addition, the Saudi Army's M1A2 is a real oil tiger, like the rebels' M1A1, the maximum distance in the field is more than 200 kilometers, and the road mileage is only more than 400 kilometers, and it is more than 100 kilometers from Semawa to Nasiriyah, and it may not be able to run back and forth.

Taking into account combat attrition, the Saudi M1A2 will definitely run out of fuel in Semavo.

Without fuel, these tanks become decorations.

The armored forces are incapacitated, what will the Saudi army take to break through?

Counting on reinforcements?

You know, the Saudi army is reinforcements.

Four brigades went to Semavo, and how could other units of the Arab League ground forces that entered Iraq be available?

It can be said that as long as Nasiriyah is defeated and then held out for a few days, all the government forces in Semawah can be eliminated, as well as the Saudi troops who rushed to reinforce them.

Several brigades have been completely annihilated, and I am afraid that the Saudi authorities will have to consider withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has retreated, and several other Arab League countries will naturally withdraw their troops.

Without the support of the Arab League, if Razak wants to survive, he must leave Iraq quickly, flee to other countries, and form a government-in-exile.

If, with the strength of the rebels, it is impossible to eat tens of thousands of government troops in Semavo in one bite, then it is not a matter to defeat Nasiriyah, who is guarded by two militia brigades.

If even the rabble militia can't beat it, how can the rebels win the war?

What's more, the rebels used the strength of five brigades to attack Nasiriyah.

The number of troops was about three times that of the defenders, and it was sure that victory was in hand.

After committing an infantry brigade, only one infantry brigade remained in the rebel reserves, and this infantry brigade was to guard the crossing site.

That is, this infantry brigade was twenty kilometers east of Nasiriyah.

Because they had to hold on to Nasiriyah after the capture of Nasiriyah, the rebels were well prepared and arranged for thousands of vehicles to deliver supplies to the front.

These vehicles were previously deployed in Shetra and Isla, north of Nasiriyah.

It was only after the rebels began to cross the river that they set out from these two places and rushed to the crossing site.

Such an arrangement was made only for the sake of secrecy, because after several thousand transport vehicles were on the road, they would definitely be discovered, thus exposing the combat intentions.

According to the arrangement, the convoy will arrive at the north bank crossing site in the early hours of the morning.

If all goes well, most of the transport vehicles will be able to reach Nasiriyah before dawn.

However, it may not be possible to go smoothly.

The key is that as long as the rebels attack Nasiriyah, the fighter planes of the government army and the Arab League will be dispatched, and due to various factors, they may not be able to bomb the rebels who have already entered the city of Nasiriyah, because that will injure them by mistake, so the key bombing targets are the transport convoys that have not yet reached Nasiriyah.

To this end, the rebels made more preparations.

That is, arrange for a brigade to set up an ambush circle in the east to attack the arriving Arab League transport convoy.

If a batch of supplies can be captured, then even if the convoy is bombed and some supplies are lost, there is a chance to hold Nasiriyah.

This brigade is the reserve mentioned earlier.

Because they also had to guard the place to cross the river, the main thing was to organize vehicles to cross the river, so there were actually only three battalions that could be used for ambushes.

Due to the limitation of troops, the rebels did not preset an ambush circle that was not very large.

It doesn't take much to do, after all, the first task is to stop the transport convoy of the Arab League, and the second is to seize supplies.

At around three o'clock in the morning, the Arab League convoy arrived.

At the front was a mechanized infantry battalion with more than a dozen tanks and about twenty infantry fighting vehicles, as well as a number of wheeled armored vehicles.

There is nothing surprising that the battle had started a few hours earlier, and troops must have had to be sent to open the way in front.

It's just that the mighty transport convoy is not too far away, just a few kilometers behind, which is about the maximum range of direct-fire weapons such as tank guns.

This distance is enough to ensure the safety of the convoy.

Fifteen minutes later, after the vanguard of the opening of the road entered the ambush circle, the ambush began.