Counterinsurgency: Aimed at rooting out terrorists, foreign fighters and disrupting terrorist support systems in and around Karabilah.

Marines lead the third major offensive in six weeks in the volatile Al Anbar province in western Iraq. Operation Spear focused on the rebel stronghold of Karabilah near the Syrian border. During the operation, Marines uncovered and rescued four Iraqi men being held in an insurgent torture chamber as well as several weapons caches and bomb factories.