The invasion of Iraq in 2003 saw not only the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime by coalition forces in a three-week campaign but also the beginning of a violent insurgency and, in time, a Sunni-Shia civil war and widespread communal violence. In 2005, amidst much debate about the success or otherwise of coalition operations to stabilise Iraq, the Australian Government announced that it would deploy a battle group to southern Iraq, filling a gap that would have otherwise been created by the withdrawal of a Dutch unit. Initially known as the Al Muthanna Task Group (AMTG) this combined arms organisation was officially tasked with providing security to the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction Support Group (JIRSG) undertaking humanitarian assistance and conducting construction work in Al Muthanna. On 13 July 2006 Al Muthanna became the first Governorate to transition to what the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) called 'provincial Iraqi control'. At this time the role of the Australian battle group changed to 'overwatch' and AMTG 3 was renamed as the first Overwatch Battle Group (West) (OBG(W) 1). The unit also redeployed from its base, Camp Smitty (which was originally named by the Dutch), just outside Al Muthanna's capital As Samawah to the coalition forward operating base (FOB) known as Camp Adder located at the airbase south of Tallil, Dhi Qar.