Clashes Engulf Center of Baqubah

"We've never seen that before," Pittard said. "I'm very encouraged by it."

The civilians' involvement necessitated new rules of engagement for Evans's men. Soldiers had been permitted to fire on anyone carrying a weapon or dressed in the insurgents' signature black uniform. But Evans informed the men that for the rest of the day they could fire only on people who were both armed and clad in black.

As heavy fighting ebbed and flowed over the next hour, the blue sedan remained; in the words of one soldier, it was "a Mexican standoff." At 11:30 a.m., a man in gray slacks and a gray striped shirt appeared at the guard post and offered to retrieve the weapons from the car. Evans agreed, with one caveat.

"If he turns off the street, shoot him," he told his rooftop snipers. He also ordered a squad from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a U.S.-trained paramilitary force whose woefully under-equipped recruits have generally performed poorly against a more skilled insurgency, to escort the volunteer.

From a side street, the man in gray appeared, flanked by five civil defense soldiers. The men gingerly made their way along the empty street toward the car, watched by a gathering crowd. The Iraqi soldiers, only one of them in body armor, fired into the air.

The group covered the 250 yards in a minute, and just as quickly the civilian ran back to the compound with news. The weapons, he said, consisted of several rocket-propelled grenades wrapped in wires -- an apparent booby trap.

But the civil defense soldiers continued to check the car, removing four grenades, a launcher and an ammunition vest. They tested the trunk before one of them noticed wires leading to it from the back seat. Slowly, they headed back to the compound with their find.

"Good job, guys!" Evans yelled.

A half-hour later, a U.S. infantryman knelt in the avenue 100 yards from the car, holding on his shoulder an AT-4 rocket launcher. He took aim at the blue sedan as soldiers gathered on the roof to watch. The private squeezed the trigger, and with a deafening boom the car exploded to hoots and cheers.

"You just gave the guy one less reason to wash it," one soldier yelled.

The car burned for hours. Then a group of Iraqis, some of them children carrying white bags, stripped the charred mess.

The day wore on, the fighting flaring and fading in a cycle that kept the soldiers on edge. At twilight, Evans headed for his bunk and a few hours' sleep. The muezzin's call echoed in the near distance.

"You wouldn't believe this place just after the sun rises," Evans said. "It's beautiful."