The Assault began with a preparatory airstrike, following this, A Squadron moved from its start line, firing its weapon; they pulled up meters from the outer perimeter to dismount from their vehicles and closed in on the target on foot. All the while, G Squadron provided covering fire with heavy weapons onto the facility. Air support flew sorties until they ran out of munitions; on a final pass, a US Navy F-18 Hornet strafed a bunker with its 20mm cannon, which narrowly missed several members of G Squadron. As A Squadron closed on the fortified positions several SAS troopers were wounded, the al-Qaeda fighters were not particularly well trained but they were fanatical fighters and most relished the fight. The SAS had to fight hard for every inch of progress. The RSM in command of the FSB joined in the action, he brought forward teams to reinforce A Squadron when he believed the assault was stalling, they were several hundred meters from the enemy positions when he was shot in the leg by an AK-47 round. Eventually, the A Squadron assault force reached the objective, they cleared the HQ building, gathering all intelligence materials they could find. The mission lasted 4 hours and a total of 4 SAS operators were wounded; the operation became the largest British SAS operation in history.