reconnaissance for the British Battle Group. Basra prison incident, 2005, two undercover Special Air Service soldiers who were operating in Basra as part of Operation Hathor were captured by Iraqi police after it was alleged they opened fire on a police check point. The British army used tanks to encircle the prison they were being held at and after nightfall members of A Squadron SAS stormed the house the prisoners had been moved to and rescued the captured operatives. According to the governor of Basra province, Mohammed al-Waili, the British had used "more than ten tanks backed by helicopters" to carry out the raid. After the British army left, around 150 other prisoners fled the prison. On 25 December 2006, the SAS again raided the Al Jameat station, killing seven gunmen and freeing 127 prisoners being held by Shia militias there. They then blew up the building. A British Army spokesperson stated that the 127 prisoners freed had been tortured and that there were fears that they were about to be executed. On 17 July 2006, Hathor detachment spearheaded the mission that resulted in British troops from the Brigade Reconnaissance Company of 20th Armoured Brigade capturing Sajjad Badr Adal Sayeed, the leader of the Mahdi Army, in a raid on a building in Basra. Mahdi Army militia soon engaged the strike force cordon with assault rifles and RPGs, the engagement lasted for 2 hours resulting in 1 British soldier killed and at least 4 militiaman killed. In September 2006, Hathor detachment carried out a raid on the residence of an important member of Al Qaeda international network called Omar al-Faruq in Basra, following an intelligence tip off. Faruq opened fire on the assault force and was killed, the operation was an intelligence coup and underlined the value of the detachment. In November 2006, during an assault on a building block occupied by insurgents in Basra by 'Hathor' detachment, Sergeant Jon Hollingsworth of D squadron who had been detached to 'Hathor' was leading his team when he was shot and he died of his wound not long afterwards. Operation Dover, December 2006, a team from G Squadron stormed a building in northern Basra and apprehended an insurgent cell and its leader whom were responsible for carrying a bomb attack on the Shatt al-Arab waterway in Basra in November that killed 2 soldiers and 2 Royal Marines, video of the attack and