Operation Stone Dragon

Operation Stone Dragon was a raid conducted in Georgia's South Ossetion Autonomous Region by ALF special forces as part of Operation Horizon. As a result of the mission, a key member of the Ossetian Separatist Movement, Bakur Papashvili, was captured and over a half dozen rebel insurgents were killed.

Background
Although the Ossetians had been skirmishing with the Georgian army for years, by 2112 the attacks had escalated to the verge of all-out war. The Allied Liberation Front offered to assist the Georgian military in counter-terrorism efforts against the Ossetian insurgency, hoping to earn Georgia's permission to station a significant military presence within its borders. Because the ALF was officially only present within the country in an "advisory role", it was limited in terms of the size and strength of the forces it could deploy to the area. For this reason, JSOC recommended that a small, elite Special Forces task force be assigned to counter-terrorism duties on the ground. The OCU dispatched Teams Four and Seven of its SPARTAN Special Forces to the region.

The Operation
Operation Stone Dragon was launched after gaining actionable intelligence identifying the location of Papashvili's whereabouts within the South Ossetian Autonomous Region. OCU Special Forces stationed within Georgia were assigned to capture or kill Bakur Papashvili.

The Forces involved in the operation consisted of two teams of four SPARTAN operators, Team Four and Team Seven. Utilizing a civilian semi-trailer truck, the operators approached the objective but were halted on the road by Ossetian insurgents disguised as Georgian soldiers. The forces quickly and quietly dispatched these sentries and prepared to strike on the main rebel camp approximately two klicks to the north. SPARTAN-IV proceeded on foot to the objective, while SPARTAN-VII secured the main road, in case rebels attempted to reinforce the main camp once the raid commenced.

SPARTAN-IV maneuvered into position for the attack. The battle began, coordinated with precision flanking fire from a Heron combat aerial drone. After a prolonged firefight, the camp's insurgents were dispatched and Papashvili was taken into custody. A significant amount of enemy intelligence concerning rebel ambush points, safehouses and weapons caches was also recovered. SPARTAN-IV then linked back up with Team Seven along the main road, and together both teams withdrew from the area.

Military Units Involved

 * SPARTAN-IV


 * SPARTAN-VII