
The Forces involved in the operation consisted of approximately 600 soldiers including cavalry, artillery, aviation, engineer, and special operations forces. The site names of "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2" are also a reference to the American insurgent group in the movie, The Wolverines. The operation was named after the 1984 film of the same name starring Patrick Swayze. C squadron Delta Force, ISA operators under Task Force 121 and the First Brigade Combat team of the 4th ID, conducted the operation. Operation Red Dawn was launched after gaining actionable intelligence identifying two likely locations of Saddam's whereabouts code-named Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2, near the town of ad-Dawr. This intelligence and other intelligence from detained former members of the Ba'ath Party, supported by signals intelligence from the ISA, finally pinpointed Hussein at a remote farm compound south of Tikrit. Early the next morning he revealed where Saddam may be found. On 12 December 2003, a raid on a house in Baghdad that was being used as an insurgent headquarters captured Omar. Over the next two weeks, nearly 40 members of his family were interrogated to ascertain his location.

On 1 December 2003, a former driver divulged the name Muhammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit, Saddam's right-hand man, known to TF 121 as "the source" or "the fatman". īetween July and December 2003, JSOC's Task Force 121 carried out twelve unsuccessful raids to find Saddam Hussein, together with 600 other operations against targets, including 300 interrogations. The American military labelled him "High Value Target Number One" (HVT1) and began one of the largest manhunts in history. Hussein disappeared from public view soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Capture and arrest of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
