The next day, Mosul's western district.
The abandoned textile factory warehouse sat by the riverside road, a three‑story concrete structure that had survived the 2015 street fighting. One corner of the roof had been blown open by shellfire, exposing twisted rebar.
At this moment, the warehouse had been temporarily converted into a meeting site. On the commanding heights of the three surrounding blocks, the Tenth Division's most elite sniper teams had been in position for twelve hours.
Their scopes swept over every window, every pile of rubble, every potential sniper perch.
At the entrance to the street, two T‑72 tanks blocked the road at an angle, turrets slowly rotating, the Shadow of their 125‑millimeter smoothbore guns chilling to the bone.
Behind a sandbagged checkpoint, soldiers watched with wary eyes, fingers resting on the trigger guards, ready at any moment to respond to sudden incidents.
