U.S. Troops Sweep Into Empty Insurgent Haven in Iraq

"We tell our people everywhere -- in Qaim, Rawah, Samarra and Ramadi -- that we are coming and there will be no hideout or place for the terrorists," he said.

In recent days, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers operating throughout the city had converged on Sarai, where fighting was expected to be fiercest. One U.S. squadron of just over 1,000 soldiers had planned for roughly 10 casualties per day during the assault. The night before the attack, commanders pored over aerial photographs of the neighborhood, which is so densely constructed that buildings were all but indistinguishable, making it difficult to plot a route for the attack.

"It's pretty much the worst urban terrain for fighting imaginable," said Capt. Alan Blackburn, commander of the Eagle Troop of the 3rd Armored Cavalry's 2nd Squadron, as he peppered his platoon commanders with questions about how to deal with wounded soldiers or large numbers of dead civilians.

Blackburn's intelligence showed that from 75 to 100 insurgents remained in Sarai, along with as many as 500 civilians, despite frequent messages broadcast over U.S. military loudspeakers calling on residents to evacuate.

Soldiers sleeping on the roof of a building on the southern edge of Sarai were awakened at 1:30 a.m. by a massive explosion from a ground-fired rocket, one of nine fired on the neighborhood during the operation, along with 20 Hellfire missiles, 20 2.75-inch rockets from AH-64 Apache helicopters, and 22 105mm rounds from AC-130 Specter gunships. Tanks also regularly fired rounds from their large main guns into the neighborhood

"Imagine being down there when you hear those things coming in," said Pfc. Patrick Hewitt, 19, of Frederick, Md., watching smoke billow from Sarai. "You must just be like, 'Oh my god, not again.' "

At 5 a.m., U.S. soldiers gathered at a bullet-riddled high school on the edge of Sarai and waited for the attack to begin. Three hours later, with the Iraqi army barrage still underway, Capt. Noah Hanners marched his Blue Platoon into Sarai to begin searching buildings for insurgents or evidence of their activity.

The soldiers walked quickly along both sides of a wide avenue, into what could have passed for a Hollywood version of a war zone: buildings missing roofs destroyed by explosions; blackened vehicles, some still smoking; shattered glass littering the road. They stepped over shell casings of all shapes and sizes.

It was impossible to determine how much of the destruction was recent and how much had been left unrepaired for months, or years.

The soldiers gathered material they considered suspicious, labeled it with permanent markers and placed it into garbage bags: in one house, military handbooks with diagrams showing how to conduct ambushes and make explosives; in another, three molotov cocktails; in a mosque, which had three large holes in its ceiling and shrapnel from a Hellfire missile among the rubble of its floor, grenades in a side room.

They confiscated computer disks and video controllers with the wiring removed, which can help trigger roadside bombs, and poked long sticks into water drums and baskets of grain to search for weapons.

In an alcove of one home, a newly dead body reeked so strongly that some soldiers gagged when they approached. Another body, a few blocks away, was missing most of its face. Some signs of life remained: a half-eaten bowl of rice, an unmade bed.