Alas! Babylon!.........................
From the book:
The Sidewinder darted downward, toward the dock area of Latakia. It seemed to be chasing a train. That crazy rocket, Peewee thought. There was an orange flash and an enormous ball of brown smoke and black bits of debris rushing up to meet him. Peewee kicked his rudder hard and climbed away from it, compressed within his G-suit and momentarily losing his vision. Then the shock wave kicked him in the rear and he was out over the Mediterranean again. He was asking for a vector back to his ship when another flash reflected on his instrument panel. He banked to look back, and saw a black cloud, red flames at its base, rising from Latakia.
The whole book:
https://ia903008.us.archive.org/14/items/AlasBabylonByPatFrank/Alas%20Babylon%20by%20Pat%20Frank.pdf