Operation Highworth 5

24-26 April 2026: 36H Combat Mission, Catterick OBUA
RULES
EVENT INFO
KIT LIST

Location: Samarra- Iraq 

One year after the successful extraction of the aid workers near Tikrit, the operational landscape in northern Iraq has shifted, but not stabilised. While large-scale insurgent bomb networks were fractured, the remnants did not disappear; they adapted. Former cell leaders splintered into smaller, highly mobile groups, blending criminal enterprises with ideological militancy. Kidnapping, smuggling, and targeted assassinations replaced mass-casualty bombings as their primary tools of influence.

British Special Forces return to theatre under a quieter mandate: disruption rather than domination. Their mission is no longer headline-grabbing raids but precision intelligence work aimed at preventing insurgent resurgence before it can take root. The focus has moved west of Tikrit, along the Tigris River corridor, where abandoned industrial zones and neglected infrastructure provide ideal cover for covert operations.

Coalition intelligence intercepts reveal the emergence of a figure known only as “The Broker.” Unlike previous insurgent leaders driven by ideology, The Broker is pragmatic, an organiser who connects financiers, former insurgents, and cross-border smugglers into a loose but effective alliance. His network doesn’t seek territory; it seeks leverage, infrastructure sabotage, cyber-propaganda, and manipulation of local tribal disputes to erode governmental legitimacy. The suspicion is that this Broker may actually be the true mastermind behind the Arab Ejbur police station bombing, previously thought to have been killed in a targeted strike.

Rather than planning spectacular attacks, the network aims to quietly cripple reconstruction projects, undermine elections, and turn local populations against coalition partners through misinformation and coercion. Their strength lies in invisibility.

A multinational engineering team working on a hydroelectric refurbishment project outside Samarra goes dark. No ransom demand follows, no propaganda video surfaces, only silence. Satellite imagery shows vehicles leaving the site but no signs of struggle. Signals intelligence suggests the team may have been taken not for publicity, but for their technical expertise.

Coalition command fears the engineers are being forced to assist in infrastructure sabotage, potentially targeting dams or power grids, actions that could destabilise entire provinces without a single public explosion.

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Catterick OBUA

Catterick OBUA – Directions

Lat, Long / Postcode:
54.359700, -1.717140 / DL9 3RH

Arrivals:
1800H-2100H 24 APRIL

Price

£140 TOTAL
– Online booking of £55 deposit (plus fees)
– Remainder to be paid on arrival