Editing Task Force 20 (section)

===Post invasion===
[[File:Airborne and Special Forces Uday-Qusay raid, 2003.jpg|thumb|right|Delta Force Operators of Task Force 20 and [[101st Airborne Division]] soldiers during the [[2003 Mosul raid|mission]] to capture/kill [[Uday Hussein|Uday]] and [[Qusay Hussein]] in [[Mosul]], 22 July 2003.]]
in May 2003, 80% of SOF assets were rotated out of the theatre at the conclusion of major combat operations, elements of Task Force 20 remained and continued to hunting HVT former Ba'athists under direct JSOC command and had several successes in its early operations.<ref>Neville, Leigh, '' Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military)'', Osprey Publishing, 2015 {{ISBN|978-1-4728-0790-8}}, pp.&nbsp;190–191</ref>

On 16 June 2003, operators from G Squadron, SAS (part of Task force 14) and B squadron, Delta Force, captured Lieutenant-General [[Abid Hamid Mahmud|Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti]], who had been Saddam Hussein's personal secretary and had been ranked the fourth most important HVT. He was captured in a joint helicopter and ground assault on a safehouse in Tikrit without resistance or casualties, in what was considered a highly successful operation.<ref>Urban, Mark, ''Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the Secret Special Forces War in Iraq '', St. Martin's Griffin, 2012, {{ISBN|978-1250006967}}, p. 17.</ref><ref>Neville, Leigh, '' Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military)'', Osprey Publishing, 2015 {{ISBN|978-1-4728-0790-8}},p.191</ref>

On 18 June 2003, near the Syrian border, [[Lockheed AC-130|AC-130 Spectre]] gunships guided in by TF 20 operators destroyed a convoy of Ba'ath Party members escaping to Syria. Intelligence indicated that the convoy may have included [[Saddam Hussein]] and/or his sons; other reports claimed the convoy was composed of oil smugglers. Once the convoy was destroyed by the AC-130s, TF 20 conducted a heliborne assault into a nearby compound that proved to be a Ba'athist safehouse for ferrying FREs (Former Regime Elements) across the border. The operators then came under fire from Syrian border guards, leading to a firefight that left several of the border guards dead with 17 more captured who were immediately released.<ref>Neville, Leigh, '' Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military)'', Osprey Publishing, 2015 {{ISBN|978-1-4728-0790-8}},p.167-168, pp.&nbsp;190–191</ref>

On 22 July 2003, a former Ba'athist regime member used an informer to pass intelligence to the 101st Airborne Division that [[Uday Hussein|Uday]] and [[Qusay Hussein]] (who had $15 million [[Bounty (reward)|bounty]]), along with Qusay's son and a bodyguard, were hiding in the informer's home in Mosul. The 101st passed this information to their divisional special forces liaison, who passed it on to TF 20. Platoons from the 101st Airborne set up an outer cordon around the target house; a Delta assault team prepared to breach and clear the building from the entrance, whilst a Delta interpreter called upon the occupants to surrender. The informer and his two sons left the building as previously agreed. Delta operators breached and entered, upon which they were immediately engaged by small arms fire, which wounded one Delta operator. As they withdrew from the house, the occupants threw grenades from the second floor on them, and several Delta operators were lightly wounded by the grenade fragments; the stairs had also been blocked to impede any rapid assault. Another group of assaulters fast-roped from a MH-6 Little Bird onto the roof of the building to examine the possibility of entering the building through the roof, but this wasn't possible. The decision was taken to soften up the target with heavy weapons before another entry. After soldiers of the 101st Airborne engaged the building with .50 cal HMGs and M136 anti tank rockets, a third entry attempt was made, but was again driven back by intense gunfire. The 101st fired 10 TOW missiles from HMMWV-mounted [[BGM-71 TOW|TOW II antitank guided missiles]] into the house, followed by repeated gun runs from [[Bell OH-58 Kiowa|OH-58 Kiowa]]s firing 2.75 rockets and .50 cal machine guns. Delta subsequently made a successful entry and moved up onto the second floor, finding Qusay and the bodyguard dead. Qusay's son was hiding under a bed and opened fired on the operators, leaving them no choice but to kill him. Uday was discovered wounded and armed, a Delta operator shot and killed him.<ref>Neville, Leigh, '' Special Forces in the War on Terror (General Military)'', Osprey Publishing, 2015 {{ISBN|978-1-4728-0790-8}}, pp. 193–195.</ref>