Karbala, Iraq: The Mukaiyam mosque in Karbala, only a few hundred yards from one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, burns after being attacked in a large-scale offensive that involved tanks, infantry, helicopters and an AC-130 spectre gunship. Special Forces soldiers run past a line of Humvees to storm the area.

The mosque was the primary objective of the military's offensive in Karbala after they received credible intelligence that it was the center of operations and a weapons cache belonging to Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi army. It was finally seized after a nightlong battle, and for the next ten days it was barraged with mortar and sniper fire, both of which were extremely precise, taking dozens of US casualties.