There is no running water, and the troops use outhouses.
But it's luxurious compared with Patrol Base Texas, a four-story structure overlooking a field in the Jamila neighborhood that militiamen once used for mortar and rocket attacks. Here, troops sleep sprawled on marble floors or, to escape the stifling heat, on the concrete rooftop beneath camouflage netting. Occasionally, sniper bullets zing past.
These bases did not exist until the third week in March, when the military decided it needed a foothold here. Most offer high floors for long-range viewing to help keep potential attackers at bay.
There is a limit to what soldiers can do without crossing Route Gold, but they say to be more aggressive would risk bloodshed worse than that during Mahdi Army uprisings in 2004.
Now, the main roads of Sadr City are peppered with roadside bombs that can pierce armored vehicles. The military says militiamen are positioned in residential areas, increasing the risk of civilian bloodshed if U.S. forces fire at them. Sadr officials say U.S. helicopters already have killed scores of civilians in errant assaults.
"There are days when you wish there were no restrictions. Then you have more clearheaded moments when maybe you say this is for the better," said Army 1st Lt. Matt Vigeant, who acknowledged the frustrations of not being able to go after high-level militiamen suspected of hiding in Sadr City.
Sadr insists that his cease-fire remains intact, and has urged his followers not to attack Iraqi troops, but he says they have the right to defend themselves against U.S. forces. In a statement April 25, Sadr emphasized that his warning of "open war" applied only to American forces.
To the U.S. military, the truce is as good as dead. "The reality is, all bets are off," said a military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political nature of his comments.
During a visit to Baghdad on April 20, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blamed the Mahdi Army for fighting in Sadr City and the southern city of Basra and ridiculed Sadr as a man who remains safe in Iran while his followers fight his war.
But still, American forces on the ground have to tread lightly, leaving them to erect their wall chunk by chunk while trying to win over people in the small area in which they operate.
Most say whatever support Sadr has is coerced, either through fear or economic pressure, and this makes their job difficult.
