V-22s in Iraq's Anbar province were used for transport and riskier scout missions. General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, used one to visit troops on Christmas Day 2007; as did then-presidential candidate Barack Obama during his 2008 tour of Iraq. Obtaining spares proved problematic. By July 2008, the V-22 had flown 3,000 sorties totaling 5,200 hours in Iraq. General George J. Trautman, III praised its increased speed and range over legacy helicopters, saying "it turned his battle space from the size of Texas into the size of Rhode Island." Despite frequent attacks by man-portable air-defense systems and small arms, none were lost to enemy fire by late 2009. A Government Accountability Office study stated that by January 2009, the 12 MV-22s in Iraq had completed all assigned missions; mission capable rates averaged 57% to 68%, and an overall full mission capable rate of 6%. It also noted weaknesses in situational awareness, maintenance, shipboard operations and transport capability. The report concluded: "...deployments confirmed that the V-22’s enhanced speed and range enable personnel and internal cargo to be transported faster and farther than is possible with the legacy helicopters..." MV-22s deployed to Afghanistan in November 2009 with VMM-261; it saw its first offensive combat mission, Operation Cobra's Anger, on 4 December 2009. V-22s assisted in inserting 1,000 USMC and 150 Afghan troops into the Now Zad Valley of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan to disrupt Taliban operations. On 18 February 2011, General James Amos stated that Afghanistan's MV-22s had surpassed 100,000 flight hours, calling it "the safest airplane, or close to the safest airplane" in the USMC inventory. In January 2010, the MV-22 was sent to Haiti as part of Operation Unified Response relief efforts after an earthquake, the type's first humanitarian mission. In March 2011, two MV-22s from helped rescue a downed USAF F-15E crew member during Operation Odyssey Dawn. On 2 May 2011, following Operation Neptune's Spear, the body of Osama bin Laden, founder of the al-Qaeda terrorist group, was flown by a MV-22 to the aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, prior to his burial at sea. In 2013, several MV-22s received communications and seating modifications to support the Marine One presidential transport squadron due to the urgent need for CH-53Es in Afghanistan.