secured H-3 and seized around 80 assorted anti aircraft cannon guns and an enormous amount of ammunition. A company of Rangers and Royal Marines from 45 Commando flew from Jordan to reinforce the air bases. The British SAS then headed eastwards to search for and destroy Iraqi SCUD missile launchers – which Saddam might again use to attack Israel. Capture of Lieutenant-General Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, On the night of 16 June 2003, members of G Squadron SAS and B squadron Delta Force captured Saddam Hussein personal secretary who was ranked fourth most important HVT (High Valued Target) in Tikrit, where British intelligence had traced him to. He was captured in a joint helicopter and ground assault without resistance or casualties and was considered a highly successful operation. Operation Jocal, on 24 June 2003, six Royal Military Police soldiers from 156 Provost Company of the 16 Air Assault Brigade were assaulted and killed by an Iraqi mob numbering several hundred at a police station in Majar al-Kabir. The town was known for banditry and lawlessness, the people there insisted that they had liberated themselves from Ba'athist party occupation and did not want coalition troops there, British tactics in sweeping for weapons angered the population. Some of the soldiers were shot and others beaten to death. A couple of days after the incident, members of the G squadron arrived in the town to conduct Operation Jocal to find those responsible, they then gathered intelligence on who was responsible and withdrew from the town under fire by armed Iraqis, however British military commanders discouraged the SAS from going back in and arresting those responsible. Operation Paradoxical, was authorised in the summer of 2003 and lasted until winter of that year when the SAS were placed under the command of the Chief of Joint Operations in Northwood. The broadly drawn operation was for the SAS to hunt down threats to the coalition, it also gave them greater latitude to work with US "classified" forces prosecuting the best available intelligence. They are known to have operated covertly in Ramadi and Fallujah in October and November 2003 and other more remote parts of Al Anbar Province. In A Squadrons four-month deployment in 2003 they carried out 85 missions. one mission, in late November, soldiers from A Squadron SAS launched a heliborne assault on a remote farm in Al Anbar province, after they came under fire