After political intersession with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the SAS were given a direct-action task – the destruction of an al-Qaeda-linked opium plant. The facility was located southwest of Kandahar, manned by between 80 and 100 foreign fighters, with defenses consisting of trench lines and several makeshift bunkers. The SAS were ordered to assault the facility in full daylight: the timelines had been mandated by CENTCOM and were based on the availability of air support assets – only one hour of on-call close air support was provided. The timings meant that the squadrons could not carry out a detailed reconnaissance of the site prior to the assault being launched. Despite these factors, the commanding officer of 22 SAS accepted the mission. The Target was a low priority for the US and probably would have been destroyed from the air if the British hadn't argued for a larger role in Afghanistan; US SOF commanders guarded targets for their own units. The strategic significance of the facility has never fully been explained.