At 5:30 pm on 29 November 1971, a contingent of the Iranian army supported by Imperial Iranian Navy forces invaded the Lesser and Greater Tunbs. In the Tunbs, the ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, who did not have a signed agreement with Iran, resisted the Iranian troops. On Greater Tunb, the Iranians ordered the six policemen stationed there to lower the flag. Salem Suhail bin Khamis, the head policeman, refused to comply and was shot and killed. Policemen in Greater Tunb clashed with the Iranian troops and in the ensuing skirmish four Ras Al Khaimah policemen and three Iranian soldiers were killed. The Iranian troops then demolished the police station, the school, and a number of houses, and forced the natives to leave the island. The body of the deceased were buried on the island and the residents were put on fishing boats and expelled to Ras Al Khaimah. The Iranian naval forces seized the islands with little resistance from the tiny Arab police force stationed there. The population of the Greater Tunb in 1971 was 150. According to author Richard N. Schofield, a source states that the 120 Arab civilian population of Greater Tunb was then deported, but according to other reports the island had already been uninhabited for some time earlier.