The first big use of black occurred in the spring of 1980 when members of Britain's Special Air Service conducted Operation Nimrod, an assault on the besieged Iranian embassy in London. A half-dozen terrorists had taken hostages and the SAS operators chose to clad themselves in black to look intimidating as well as to make themselves easily identifiable among their fellow rescuers. The western Special Forces community picked up on  this and made black standard wear for hostage rescue missions.