Labalaba, aged 30, was shot dead in the neck whilst firing a 25-pounder gun at the attacking guerrilla forces.

Captain Mike Kealy and fellow troopers Tommy Tobin and Sekonaia Takavesi ran a gauntlet of enemy fire but arrived too late to save Labalaba.

Labalaba's actions helped to keep the insurgents pinned down until Strikemaster jets of the SOAF arrived to drive back the attackers while reinforcements from Salalah could be organised.

[1] In 2012 he was chosen as one of BBC Radio 4's 60 New Elizabethans in celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

[3] A statue of Labalaba was erected in 2009 at the SAS headquarters in Herefordshire, and another, at Nadi International Airport in Fiji, dedicated in 2018 during a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.