from JTF2) led an operation as part of Task Force Black to free British and Canadian peace activists in Baghdad who had been taken hostage in late November 2005 (one hostage was eventually murdered). The release effort was part of Operation Lightwater: the intelligence agencies and SAS initiated the operation with the aim of finding the hostages: which involved raiding houses and arresting suspects almost every day and night. The total number of building raids amounted to 50, (44 of them being conducted British special forces which in total detained 47 people). In the early hours of 23 March 2006, as part of Operation Lightwater, the SAS carried out Operation Ney 3: their target was a house in Mishahda, 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, they found two men they were looking for that revealed the location of the hostages in western Baghdad. At 0800, the SAS stormed the house, finding the insurgents had abandoned the building the SAS rescued the hostages. Operation Traction, mid-January 2006, was the SAS upgrade into JSOC, they deployed TGHG (Task Group Headquarters Group): this included senior officers and other senior members of 22 SAS - to JSOCs base at Balad. This was the first deployment of TGHG to Iraq since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the upgrade now meant that the SAS were "joined at the hip" with JSOC and it gave the SAS a pivotal role against Sunni militant groups, particularly AQI. Operation Larchwood 4, 16 April 2006, that night, soldiers from B squadron and a platoon of British paratroopers from the SFSG/Task Force Maroon launched the operation that was aimed at mid-level Al-Qaeda leadership, it had been developed out of raids carried out on previous days by Delta Force and the SAS against AQI in the outskirts of Baghdad, killing at least 7 insurgents. B squadron inserted by helicopter and assaulted the terrorist-occupied farmhouse on the outskirts of Yusufiyah whilst the paratroopers set up a cordon, soon after entering the house a firefight broke out and 3 SAS soldiers were wounded by gunfire, the SAS regrouped and continued to assault the house but two more were wounded. However the SAS overcame this setback and took the house and the combined force killed a total of 5 terrorists and captured five men and several women and children, it also gathered valuable intelligence on Al Qaeda in Iraq including its leader. On 15 April