The British government immediately declared County Armagh a "Special Emergency Area" and deployed hundreds of extra troops and police in the area. A battalion of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was called out and the Spearhead Battalion was sent into the area. Two days after the massacre, the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that the Special Air Service (SAS) was being sent into South Armagh. This was the first time that SAS operations in Northern Ireland was officially acknowledged. It is believed that some SAS personnel had already been in Northern Ireland for a few years. Units and personnel under SAS control are alleged to have been involved in loyalist attacks.