As the eight-year Iran-Iraq conflict stalemated, the countries began preying on each other's oil industries. Iran also began attacking shipping by Iraq's chief financial supporters, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The United States launched a unique effort in response, forming a joint special operations task force based aboard two converted oil barges. For more than a year this force engaged in a daily struggle with Iranian small boats and mine layers for control of the sealanes in the channelized area north of Bahrain.