On 22 November 1970, Portuguese forces from neighbouring Portuguese Guinea staged Operation Green Sea, a raid on Conakry by several hundred exiled Guinean opposition forces. Among their goals, the Portuguese military wanted to kill or capture Sekou Touré due to his support of the PAIGC, an independence movement and rebel group that had carried out attacks inside Portuguese Guinea from their bases in Guinea. After fierce fighting, the Portuguese-backed forces retreated, having freed several dozen Portuguese prisoners of war that were being held by the PAIGC in Conakry, but without having ousted Touré. In the years after the raid, massive purges were carried out by the Touré government, and at least fifty thousand people (one percent of Guinea's entire population) were killed. Countless others were imprisoned and faced torture. Often in the case of foreigners, they were forced to leave the country, after having had their Guinean spouse arrested and their children placed into state custody.