In 2003, a coalition between the United States and British forces initiated war on Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction and Hussein having ties to al-Qaeda. After having conquered Baghdad, the codenamed Operation Red Dawn continued to track down the Iraqi leader. The mission was executed by an elite and covert joint special operations team, and U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep “spider hole” after he'd spent nine months on the run.