BAGHDAD — The U.S.-led convoy had been idling for at least an hour, waiting for a bomb squad to detonate a sizable haul of explosives uncovered in raids on the Iskan neighborhood of south Baghdad, a dense warren of narrow streets teeming with Sunni insurgents and roadside bombs.
It had been a successful morning: The U.S. forces, working alongside Iraqi national police, had detained 10 men in raids on the homes of suspected insurgents and had uncovered a homemade rocket launcher, two rifles and a cache of mortar rounds.
Then there was an explosion, but not the one they were waiting for: The convoy was under attack.
Snipers had thrown a grenade, which was followed by the loud, rapid hammer of automatic weapons fire from a rooftop and from behind a fuel tank. American and Iraqi soldiers took and returned fire. No one was hit, and the snipers melted back into the neighborhood.
So went another typical day in the U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown against an unseen enemy.
As the forces try to restore calm to the Iraqi capital, they have moved largely without incident into neighborhoods dominated by Shiite Muslim extremists whose leaders are allies of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
But in districts dominated by Sunni Arab insurgents and their foreign compatriots, the U.S.-led forces are facing a much larger and bloody challenge.
The Iskan neighborhood and the larger Dora district may be the biggest stronghold of the Al Qaeda in Iraq network in Baghdad, and U.S.-led forces seeking to bring order are regularly coming under attack here. The troops of the Army's 2nd Brigade, 12th Infantry Regiment, from Ft. Carson, Colo., search for insurgents and weapons with information provided to the Iraqi national police by detainees and informants.
The Shiite-dominated police are a fledgling, and some might say ragtag, force. They wear mismatched uniforms, and not all have boots. Still, U.S. soldiers give them high marks for obtaining quality intelligence.
*
Off to an early start
For the more than 30 American soldiers assigned to enter Iskan on Sunday, the day began when they rolled out of Forward Operating Base Falcon, a few miles south, at 3 a.m. Their goal was to capture a highly sought sniper who had been wounded in a previous gun battle with U.S.-led forces and to search for hidden caches of weapons.
