We’ve all seen the famous photo of the Iraqi-American interpreter pulling the Iraqi dictator out of his “spider hole” in Tikrit. To get to that photograph required a virtual “who’s who” of American special operations.
On top of SEAL Team Six and Delta Force, the list included the 75th Ranger Regiment, and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the CIA’s Special Activities Division, U.S. Air Force Combat Controllers, Pararescuemen, Tactical Air Control Party operators, along with armored support.
It was called Task Force 121, it ended the Hussein family’s reign of terror over Iraq, and became a case study in human intelligence.
In July 2003, elements of Task Force 20 received a tip that Uday and Qusay Hussein were hold up in a villa in the Iraqi city of Mosul. By 0900 that morning, the villa was surrounded by the 101st Airborne and the U.S. Army’s Delta Force was positioned to assault the building. When the Army demanded their surrender, the shooting started.
