In vast cemetery, the battle can be waged tombstone to tombstone

The men of the First Battalion, Fifth Cavalry Regiment had been patrolling a dusty road that cuts into the graveyard's heart for eight hours to prevent militants loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr from moving north.

They had found and blown up four bombs laid on rock-strewn paths. They'd been attacked by mortars that came close but hurt nobody.

When pockets of Sadr fighter's got too close, they called in Apache helicopter gunships and pressed forward with only the faintest resistance, then pulled back.

Mostly, it was quiet, and Charlie Company commander Captain Patrick McFall spent a lot of time gazing over a computerized satellite map of the graveyard in his armored Humvee.

Near dusk, however, the crackle of gunfire and explosions rang out again.

Several Bradley fighting vehicles and half a dozen Humvees sped up to a deserted intersection on the cemetery's northeastern edge, scanning the tombstone-filled horizon with binoculars and gun turrets.

Dewilde, leader of the Third Platoon, told McFall eight men with rocket-propelled grenades and ''multiple snipers" had been spotted in the graveyard and buildings rising behind it near the gold-domed Imam Ali shrine.

US commanders are under strict orders to avoid damaging the shrine for fear of enraging Iraq's Shi'ite majority and Shi'ites worldwide.

For that reason, they maintain positions in the cemetery about 800 yards away.

Sergeant Lyle Pete, 24, of Gardnerville, Nev., said he'd seen three men repeatedly firing from a building near the shrine. ''They jump out and fire RPGs and jump back inside," he said.

''This is the second time today we've taken RPG-fire from that location," said 30-year-old McFall of Harker Heights, Texas.

With the crackle of light gunfire echoing through the graveyard, a mortar round thundered behind the men, then an RPG round exploded to their front. Smoke rose from the blasts.

A small infantry unit of about 15 men scrambled forward looking for firing positions. Some lay in the middle of a small path leading south.