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But in the end, over 75,000 combatants and an estimated 65,000 civilians remained in the city and around the holy shrines, fortifying them all for the expected ground assault...that never came.

With no more talk, with no more fanfare, at noon on June 8th, the bombing began.

Waves of B-52H bombers performed the most intensive bombing raids since the Vietnam War... all concentrated on the one, city. Wave after wave, the bombers came throughout the 8th, 9th and 10th of June...non-stop.

Interspersed in with the ARC LITE bombing was the use of dozens of newly developed MOAB II area demolition bombs. Mammoth 60,000 pound bombs that were delivered by specially configured C-17 Globe Master transports, dubbed B-17 IIs. Each of those behemoths was capable of completely reducing entire city blocks. They were known as poor man's mini-non-nukes.

By the morning of the 9th, first hundreds...and then thousands of inhabitants and combatants began exiting the ruined city. Any who came out with weapons in their hands, or who otherwise attempted to fight were immediately shot down and killed.

Soon, all who came out were unarmed and nonbelligerent.

By the afternoon on the 9th, no major structure was left standing in the city. By noon on the 10th, when the bombing campaign ended, not one stone was standing left upon another within Mecca.

An eerie silence fell across the face of the countryside in and around the remains of the city. There was not so much as a moan coming from the ruins. .
That afternoon, allied scout, EOD and medic teams entered the city. Over a two day period, fewer than 500 injured were pulled from the mounds of rubble. By the 14th of June, all rescue and recovery efforts ceased. The allies did not intend to rebuild Mecca...they intended to send a message.

Over one hundred U.S. Army D-9 caterpillar bulldozers then appeared on the perimeter around the city and converged on it. They literally covered over the smoldering debris and smoothed it out in three days time. A flat, desolate landscape then occupied the ground where once Mecca stood. All debris, all ruined or discarded weapons-all bodies-had been buried there.

Atop this soil the allies sprinkled salt and then soaked the ground in swine fat. Around the perimeter, and interspersed every five hundred yards within, the following metal signs were erected:

Here stood Mecca, until it was occupied by barbarians, terrorists and desecrators and those who harbored them, who then committed atrocities against the United States of America and the United Kingdom and their allies.

Now there is nothing here but a desolation of pig-fat and salt.

Let the fate of this once great city be a clear message to all those who would desecrate that which is holy and who would consider committing similar atrocities against United States or United Kingdom forces, personnel or civilians.

To the innocent we allowed to escape we say-De Oppresso Libre! To the barbarians who died here we say-Sic Simper Tyranis!