Rebels fought one city at a time

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HUSAYBAH, Iraq -- The 101st Airborne is on the prowl and taking fire -- from children with cap pistols celebrating the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of Ramadan.

"Get on the phone with the mayor, and tell these kids to stop shooting their toy guns or they'll end up dead," ordered Lt. Col. Joe Buche, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 187th Regiment from Fort Campbell, Ky.

Col. Buche was leading his forces this week on a raid set up on short notice after he received intelligence indicating that senior insurgent leaders were preparing to meet at an abandoned hotel on the edge of town.

A massive manhunt is under way on the Iraqi-Syrian border as U.S. forces seek to root out foreign fighters and insurgents.

On the walls of Husaybah, a city of 120,000, insurgents have painted "Slow Dayth to the Americans."

After insurgents assassinated Husaybah's police chief in October, most Iraqi officers have refused to show up to work out of fear of being seen in league with U.S. forces.

Hot on the insurgents' trail, the colonel and his security detail stopped to watch a butcher slaughter a black sheep as his forces quickly deployed in a cordon around the suspect hotel.

As the butcher skinned the sheep, he growled that his holiday season was being ruined by the heavy U.S. military activity in his hometown.