One of the most notable Fertit tribes that did not participate in the Army of Peace was the Thuri or Shatt people. Many Fertit tribal leaders distrusted the Thuri/Shatt due to them speaking a language that was similar to Jur and Dinka languages, and even alleged that the Thuri had aided the SPLA raids. The newly formed militia consequently attacked Turi villages, forcing locals to flee to Awoda where they actually joined the SPLA. In the following years Fertit fighters thus fought on both sides in the civil war. After new raids on their territory, the Fertit leaders who supported the Army of Peace asked the governor of Bahr el Ghazal for help, but he refused. They consequently approached the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for support. They appointed a local official of mixed ethnicity as militia leader, Atom Al-Nour (also transliterated "El Tom El Nour" or "Eltom Elnur"). The Sudanese government began to support the militia in 1986, while Captain Raphael Kitang, a retired army officer, became one of its most important commanders. The Army of Peace initially operated autonomous and exclusively in the surroundings of Wau, where it defended local villages from insurgents from 1986 to early 1987. Already at a very early stage, however, the militia became notorious for many human rights violations such as the assassination of critical Fertit and Dinka tribal leaders as well as politicians, and most notably the indiscriminate killing and torture of Dinka civilians, including the murder of children and pregnant women. The Army of Peace drastically expanded its operations after the arrival of SAF reinforcements in July 1987. These reinforcements included the infamous 242 Battalion (also known as "Hun" or "Genghis Khan Battalion") and were led by Maj-Gen Abu Gurun Abdullah Abu Gurun, nicknamed "Hitler" due to his brutality. Receiving better weaponry including tanks, the militia then began to act as auxiliary force to the SAF as new counter-insurgency operations were launched. In August of that year, the group as well as the Sudanese army massacred hundreds of Dinka in Wau, causing the local Dinka-dominated Wau Police and Wildlife Forces to take up arms in order to defend the civilian population. The following intra-government fighting was extremely brutal and hundreds were killed. Dinka members of the police and Wildlife Forces formed death squads to retaliate against the militia, while the Army of Peace in return attacked the police headquarters with tanks in August.