begun nearly a month earlier with an allied special forces coalition of Australian Special Air Service, New Zealand Special Air Service and British Special Boat Service (SBS) armed Response Force. No 1 IRCON was embedded in the reconnaissance company in the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Regiment (1 RNZIR) Battalion Group together with an infantry company from the Canadian 3rd Battalion, Royal 22 Regiment bringing the battalion to full strength. The Battalion Group based in Suai was responsible for securing the south-west of the country from pro-Indonesian militia and Indonesian military (TNI) that included a long section of the border between East and Indonesian controlled West Timor. No 1 IRCON completed a four-month deployment followed by No 2 IRCON. In February 2000, INTERFET handed over command of military operations to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). No 2 IRCON completed its four-month deployment in June 2000 with subsequent rotations from infantry platoons. The Battalion Group had several contacts (firefights) and a number of incidents with threat forces sustaining no casualties. Liberia The ARW was deployed in Liberia in the aftermath of the Second Liberian Civil War as part of a peacekeeping contingent of more than 400 troops from the Irish Army, in turn, part of the mixed Irish-Swedish Force Reserve Battalion of the United Nations mission in the country, UNMIL (2003). The ARW's area of operations (AO) was "all of Liberia", consisting of 4.7 million people and 111,369 sq km (43,000 sq mi). One of their most successful missions during this deployment was the rescue of a large group of civilians captured by gunmen from renegade Liberian forces. Acting on intelligence, a team of twenty heavily armed Rangers were dropped via helicopters at the town of "Gbapa". To avoid casualties among the hostages, the ARW implemented a policy of less-lethal intervention and, after surrounding a 40-foot container holding 35 hostages, rescued the innocent civilians and captured the rebel forces, including their commander. The incident, which resulted in no Irish casualties, drew praise from the international community and boosted the reputation of the ARW worldwide. Ranger Sergeant Derek Mooney (33) of Dublin, was killed when his vehicle was involved in a motor vehicle accident during a transport convoy. Chad and Central African Republic In February 2008, a Special Forces Task Group of 58 Rangers deployed to Abéché in Chad as part of the European Union Force Chad/CAR based