In 1991, soldiers of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard conducted a pre-emptive strike against a four-man U.S. Navy SEAL squad that included Sam Fisher, as squad leader, and Victor Coste on the "Highway of Death" in Diwaniya, Iraq during the Liberation of Kuwait campaign. After an IED in the road detonated and killed one of the SEALs, the Republican Guard ambushed the rest of the squad. The blast knocked Coste to the ground causing him to fall into unconsciousness. As he struggled to regain consciousness, a Republican Guard soldier executed another SEAL and two more Republican Guard soldiers dragged the unconscious squad leader away for interrogation.