Major Chemical Weapons Attacks in Khanid Kingdom; Queen Zidarez Missing; Slave Revolts Reported

Kahah III, Khanid Kingdom – A series of major chemical weapons attacks has been carried out in the Khanid Kingdom system of Kahah. The strikes appear to have been timed to coincide with a tour of inspection of facilities on Kahah III by Queen Zidarez Khanid, consort of King Khanid III and Grand Admiral of the Royal Khanid Navy. Queen Zidarez is said to be missing amidst reports of widespread slave revolts in the system.

While Khanid forces are attempting to impose planetary quarantines, reports suggest that a multipronged attack was carried out with weaponized psychotropic chemicals, and the focal point of the assault was a garrison of the 5th Uhlan Guards based in the city of Damaskh on Kahah III. The garrison was being visited by Queen Zidarez as part of a tour of inspection of the Khanid Kingdom's food security, a major concern owing to increasing threats to shipping across New Eden.

The chemical weapons strikes were carried out principally against targets on the agricultural world of Kahah III but also took place throughout the system, a vital food production center for the Kingdom. Kahah I's major aquacultural centers in the equatorial belt of the ocean world were significant secondary targets, and there were scattered attacks on slaveholdings throughout the settled planets of the system.

Late breaking reports from a failed attempt to strike the Kahah VII Central Deepcore Mining Facility indicate that the chemical weapons were used against the facility but failed to have any serious effect, possibly due to the industrial body armor and breathing apparatus in use at the site. Counterfire from forces belonging to Ikomari-Onu Enforcement military contractors is reported to have brought down several attacking ships.

Khanid Kingdom news sources indicate that King Farokh Khanid III is monitoring the situation from a secure location and has placed Sardar Marshal Soshan Fayez, commander of the feared 7th Asbara Cyber Knights, in charge of "pacifying" Kahah system. The 7th Asbara are infamous throughout the Kingdom and beyond for the brutal suppression of the Bashyam IV slave revolt in YC97, and saw extensive action during the Kingdom slave revolts of YC110. Sardar Marshal Fayez is a former Uhlan Guards general and "thrice-scarred" cyber knight, known to be a member of King Farokh's inner court.

While the Scope was unable to obtain comment from the Royal Khanid Court or Sardar Marshal Fayez, the Khanid plenipoteniary representative, Sa-Baron Alar Chakaid, was available to give his view of the situation:

"We know who is responsible for these acts. Minmatar rebels. Ammatar traitors. Blood cultists. Subversive capsuleers who treat with our enemies. Let them be in no doubt that the consequences for this latest outrage will be vast and terrible. First, we shall wade in the blood of the slaves who have risen against us. My own 19th Royal Uhlans even now mobilize in support of the pacification forces. The taint that has been spread in Kahah by our enemies shall be cleansed with fire and steel.

"Second, if it transpires that Her Grace, Queen Zidarez, has fallen to this latest evil there will be a reckoning with the vile insects that gnaw at the innards of the Holy Amarr Empire and the Khanid Kingdom. Let them pray to their heathen idols and false spirits that the Queen lives yet. If she does not, they will reap a harvest of woe."

The Scope will report further as the situation develops.