Charing Cross Road London WC2

 

Lat = 51 degrees, 30.5 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 7.6 minutes West

 

Sunday 8th November 1987

Fifteen minutes earlier, Ten forty-five hours GMT

 

The white coloured Ford Sierra, had left Freegrove road in the Lower Holloway area of London, on board were three men of Arabic origin.

Aban Ba’albaki who was driving with his two passengers Essa Faraj and Hakem Zuabi both sitting in the back, all three were members of the ANO Abu Nidal Organization the International terrorist organization led by Sabri al-Banna, that had split from the PLO in 1974, and was currently based in the Lebanon.

The ANO had received considerable support, including safe haven, training, logistic assistance, and financial aid from Iraq, Libya, and Syria.

Since 1974, the organisation had carried out numerous attacks on the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Israel.

Today was going to be another attack on the west, the target the ceremony at the Cenotaph.

The Ford Sierra hurtled down towards Trafalgar square, two uniformed Police officers moved out into the road to order it to stop.

Aban Ba’albaki jammed his right foot down harder on the accelerator pedal increasing the vehicles speed.

The two Police officers were forced to dive out of the way, as the Ford rounded Trafalgar square and headed for Whitehall.

One of the Police officers managed to make a call on his personal radio, “Alpha Delta 820 to MP, we have a white Ford Sierra that has failed to stop, and has entered Whitehall from the Trafalgar square end; over.”

MP is the generic call sign for the Metropolitan Police’s Comms room at New Scotland yard, one of the operators replied, “received Alpha Delta 820, any units in Whitehall please advise of vehicles status and stop it over.”

The Ford Sierra was now in Whitehall, both Essa and Hakem had wound the rear windows down; with their AK-47’s pointing out they began to fire indiscriminately at the lines of people on either side of the road.

Members of the forces and civilians began to take hits and fell to the ground either dead or injured.

A half-mile down Whitehall road the gunshot resonance had been heard, Police armed protection officers had begun herding the Royal family and the Prime minister, quickly away from Whitehall and into nearby Downing street, a Police Range Rover then blocked the roadway into Downing street, just as the Ford Sierra came into view.

By this time mayhem had ensued, hundreds of people were running aimlessly trying to escape the area.

In the following day’s tabloids the headlines would describe the following scene as like, “a lone wild west gunfighter emerging from the chaos.”

A man in a British army uniform; displaying the insignia of a crossed sword and baton below a star or often referred to as a pip, signifying a Major General, was now standing alone in front of the cenotaph, facing the oncoming Ford Sierra and aiming a Glock model-19 in both hands at the oncoming car, sixty yards away.

Aban Ba’albaki had seen the lone gunman ahead and shouted back to his two men to direct fire at this man.

The lone gun man squeezed the trigger several times and several 9mm rounds burst out of the barrel at 1,230 ft/s, the lone gunman continued to fire until the slide mechanism stayed back, indicating that the fifteen rounds had been fired and the weapon was empty.

On the receiving end of this volley of rounds was Aban Ba’albaki and his two comrades, the second and third bullet had struck Aban directly in the skull, spraying blood and brain matter over the back onto Essa and Hakem.

The sixth and eighth 9mm rounds found Essa’s left shoulder, with the eleventh and twelfth hitting Hakem in the throat.

The Ford Sierra was now out of control and had flipped over once onto its roof.

As the car slid towards him, the lone gunman stood his ground, ejecting the spent magazine and feeding a fresh one into the pistols handle, as the car slid towards him, he took aim again covering the vehicle as it slid to a stop several feet from him.

For a few moments; a chilling silence surrounded the scene; however, this was quickly broken by the cries from the injured people and the emerging sound of the sirens from the emergency vehicles as they began arriving.

The lone gunman walked towards the upturned Ford covering the vehicle with his weapon, he looked inside at the three occupants that were covered in blood none had survived the hail of bullets and the crash.

He holstered his weapon and turned away walking towards nearby Downing Street.

The Prime Minister moved through the small Police cordon that had formed towards him, as the two met she smiled at him and said, “Major Strayker your bravery as always has saved the day.”

Strayker turned from the Prime Minister and looked up Whitehall, observing the carnage that was still unfolding; turning back to the Prime Minister he replied, “Have you given anymore thoughts on my proposal to deal with these fanatics Ma’am?”

She looked up Whitehall and it was obvious to everyone that people were lying dead and injured on a British street, in fact anyone could have mistaken this for a scene from the Middle East.

“Major send me your proposal for this Friday and meet with me at 3pm, and we will discuss it.”

“Thank you Ma’am.