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What the hell they've gone and done POD of the day... Egypt invades Cyprus in 1978.

Well if you want to get technical Egypt DID invade Cyprus in 1978 when it landed commandos from Unit 777 in Larnaca airport, ostensibly to help out with a hostage situation involving Egyptian citizens. Then said commandos proceeded to attack by their own towards the hostages, the Cypriot warnings to stop resulted to being fired upon by the Egyptians, at which point a general firefight ensued between the raiders and the Cypriot National Guard, leaving 18 Egyptians dead, about as many wounded and the C-130 carrying them destroyed by recoilless rifle fire. Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Cyprus till Sadat who had ordered the raid died and that was the end of it.

So say Sadat, already enraged (the original terrorist attack involved killing a personal friend of his) decides he can't afford looking weak to Cyprus of all people and reacts to the defeat of Unit 777, by ordering air raids and airborne troops to take Larnaca airport. A, necessarily small, landing force follows suit. It doesn't work out very well. The Cypriots do get surprised, but fight back (after all an assault on Larnaca and its airport would be anticipated and planned for, no matter that the people doing the assault are wearing Egyptian instead of Turkish uniforms), the Egyptians are not prepared for what amounts an overseas expedition on limited notice, while Greece intervenes on the Cypriot side, the Karamanlis government can hardly afford politically to let Cyprus on its own for a second time in four years if it wants to survive, thus sends in air strikes, submarines and limited numbers of troops in support.

The whole mess is over in less than a week with a cease fire being brokered and the surviving Egyptian force returning to Egypt. The political ramifications within both the countries directly involved and in Turkey and Israel will probably last way longer...

Thoughts?
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