The Interlaken Alliance has launched a new military campaign against the Solarian regime in Torrence. The military coalition believes the new campaign, named ‘Operation Defiance’, will mark a major breakthrough in the thirteen year crisis. Speaking at a press conference this evening, top ITO commander Jensen Hendentenberg said that the launch of the campaign would be “the beginning of the end” of the conflict and is designed to “collapse” the regime of the so-called self-styled ‘Pope of Padania’ centered on the former Padanian capital of Torrence.
Military conflict between the regime and ITO began in the Lier back in 2007 when the regime attacked the Belmish border after years of military buildup. ‘The Pope’, whose real identity is Burkhardt Stahl – a former Padanian military commander who ruled the Zelem region military and religious leader who took his name from the historic Holy Centrican Empire -has ruled northern Lierland since establishing an armed coup in 1999 against the Padanian government. A believer in Elementism, he rose to prominence as a preacher – eventually leading a coup which led to the exile of the government in Nicosia. His 21 year rule of the country has been described as ‘the darkest chapter’ of Gallian history – with the regime known for its brutal laws and oppression of its people.
The alliance believes that the capital is more susceptible to attack following a series of intelligence reports that suggested Stahl is in bad health, and the regime’s defences are receiving ‘confused and random’ orders with many considering that the ruling order has fallen apart. Strict Elementist law means Stahl has ruled the occupation with an iron fist – and ITO believe with him ill, or incapacitated, that the regime could collapse imminently. Some 2.5 million people remain under the regime’s control – with the city’s defences seen as ‘extraordinarily strong’. Its military commanders retaliated and switched the campaign’s central tactics to defence back in 2012 – after losing control of most of its territory from ITO retaliation attacks. A complex network of tunnels and armaments have complicated the alliance’s advances to defeat the regime over the last decade.
Operation Defiance is being led by Belmish and Eiffelland forces, with support from other members of the alliance. Polasciana is providing naval support to fighter jets attacking Torrence.
