Karabilah, Iraq—June 17, 2005: Air strikes prime an insurgent stronghold for a Marine assault, but nothing could prepare troops for the evil they unearth.

Operation Spear begins one day after Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston calls the Syrian border the “worst problem” when it comes to foreign fighters joining the insurgency in Iraq. The 380-mile long border between Syria and Iraq is but a line in the sand for terrorists determined to wage war. Just five miles from the border lies a city called Karabilah.

Karabilah has long been suspected of harboring terrorists, most likely against the will of the residents. By virtue of its ideal location, foreign fighters have resided in the city long enough to build up a formidable fighting force, and to develop bomb-making facilities in every type of edifice in the city. Several buildings are remodeled into fortified, reinforced and barricaded structures. Windows are covered with bricks, infused with small rifle firing ports.

A seasoned, combined force is called to clear the region of enemy elements. Regimental Combat Team 2 is a potent mix of Marines and Iraqi Soldiers. The operation they embark on is not underestimated, the troops know they must perform in perfect synchronicity with air assault divisions and tank battalions in order to successfully infiltrate the city and loosen the stranglehold the terrorists have over it. In the middle of the night, aerial bombings begin. 33 insurgent strongholds are destroyed in the air strikes.

Then, the real battle begins.

Through fierce dust storms and 106 degree heat, Regimental Combat Team 2 begins a deadly raid on Karabilah. They discover bomb factories and safe houses, and they gather Intel that sheds light on the sophistication of the insurgents’ operations here. Foreign passports from Sudan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Libya are found. Detailed instructions and formulas for making explosives are confiscated. But the most revolutionary discovery is a terrorist torture house, complete with four hostages.

Still alive, the captive men are found bound and gagged, wounded. They report having been captured three weeks ago, and still aren’t sure why. Their prison is actually the basement floor of an improvised explosive device factory, part of a compound that includes a school. Bomb-making instructions are spelled out on the classroom’s blackboard.

Nothing is as it seems: insurgents fire on Marines, then retreat into a holy mosque, neighborhood cars are rigged with explosives and elementary schools are used for terrorist training..

In this no-holds-barred urban war, the rules of engagement are now the exception.