One minute, men in gray dishdashas had been standing on the trash-heaped sidewalks, vendors sold nuts and soap, and the next, Whiskey Six, one of a half-dozen armored Humvees punching a supply convoy through Anbar province's capital city, came under attack.
A mix of chuckles and curses filled Whiskey Six's four-seat interior, crammed with green ammo cases, a giant radio box, and a rocket tube as it sped ahead, past slabs of flattened buildings dynamited by insurgents.
The vehicle raced past a mural of a US flag, emblazoned with a swastika instead of stars, and a caption, "This is the true America."
The armored Humvees, belching gas fumes, reached one combat outpost and then quickly turned to clear a return route for the supply convoy when two fireballs hit Whiskey Six's right flank.
Bullets snapped and crackled, violet-colored tracers lit up the gray sky. Two mortars fell within 50 meters (yards) of Whiskey Six, one of them shooting off a cloud of white smoke as two men used the distraction to dart from an alley.
The marines found themselves bogged down yet again in a two-hour street battle in the city, considered the axis of Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgency, along with Fallujah to the east.
"A big fight like that takes a toll on the insurgents. Because it takes time for them to regroup," said Captain Patrick Rapicault, the commander of Whiskey Six and the rest of the 2-5 marine battalion's weapons company.
Ramadi has been torn by almost daily street battles since April. Ferocious and brutal in nature - reducing parts of the city to rubble - neither side appears closer to a decisive victory today than they did seven months ago.
The marines have avoided a repeat of Fallujah, a virtual no-go zone for US forces, but the city has still become an urban battlefield, reminiscent of Mogadishu or Beirut at the height of Lebanon's civil war.
"I don't know anyone is winning," the 2-5 battalion's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Randy Newman, said.
"The people of Ramadi I talk to they don't want them [the insurgents] here, but they don't feel they can do anything about it."
A high-ranking American official in Baghdad said a key indicator for the US military that they are beating the insurgency will come when Sunnis finally start to provide significant intelligence on the resistance.
And this clearly is not happening in Ramadi.
"There's definitely a feeling it would be dangerous to be associated with the United States," said Major Mike Targos, the battalion's executive officer.
Recent cases of intimidation include the murder of an Iraqi who cleaned the latrines on a US base, and the month-long kidnapping of the dean of Anbar university, located in Ramadi.
The dean now attends the campus sporadically and is spending a large amount of time in therapy. The current Anbar governor Muhammad Awad replaced a predecessor who resigned and fled to Jordan after his three sons were kidnapped in August.
The military has also received reports that some government members' relatives are linked to the insurgency, the officer added.
A lack of trust in the local police and Iraqi national guard has also burdened the marines.
"The police are so corrupt, if they [insurgents] started to assassinate them, they'd probably be killing some of their own," said Captain Sean Kuehl, an intelligence officer.
The two officers seemed certain the insurgency will rage on well into 2005 and thought its outright defeat was not yet in reach.
"Ramadi will always have an insurgency but we can bring it to a level where people feel it is safe enough and local Iraqi forces and police can deal with it," another officer said.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.