'Saddam Hussain is finished, but we're protecting our honour and our land'

Sgt 1st Class Robert Hollis knew there was trouble even before the shooting started. As he stood guard in his M1-A1 Abrams tank outside a bank in this Sunni town, the usually busy streets suddenly emptied Sunday. Men hurried down back alleys, some running. Women dragged their children away from the positions of US troops.

Then, through his scope, Hollis said he saw a man lift a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to his shoulder, aiming at him and his crew of three. What followed was perhaps the bloodiest engagement since the US occupation of Iraq began in April.

A day later, questions persisted over essential facts of the fighting, which ebbed and flowed through much of Sunday and ended with a devastating defeat of the Iraqi guerrillas who had massed in numbers against the overwhelming power of US forces.

For the military, the fight revealed a startling new reality about the fighters themselves - unprecedented coordination and tactics and numbers yet unseen. Hollis says he saw a determination he did not expect from guerrillas best known for hitting, then running.

"I'm telling you these guys taking some of the shots knew they were going to die," said Hollis.

"But they still, under that fire, squeezed the trigger, even though they knew that was the last thing they were going to do. They were standing the ground and fighting, and our guys were standing the ground and fighting."

Hollis and his fellow troops of the Fourth Infantry Division entered Samarra at about 11am to deliver new Iraqi currency to two banks in the city.

The US forces were attacked with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. The attackers, the US military said, were wearing garb they associated with fighters loyal to former President Saddam Hussain - head scarves checkered in red or black and dark shirts and pants.

"This was not done in a last-minute planning effort," said Rudesheim, who acknowledged that, despite the scale of the ambush, US forces lacked any intelligence on what was afoot.

At the bank near the Imam Hadi shrine, a sacred destination for Shiite pilgrims, Abdel-Samad Ahmedi, a merchant, saw cars racing down the street, then heard gunfire. People ran indoors, he said.

Down the street, Bassem Feisal was too late. The Iraqi, who is mentally disabled, stayed in the street outside a café, even after the shooting started, according to his brother Saad. Bassem was shot twice in the left arm, but survived a fusillade of gunfire that riddled a nearby building.

Saad stood Monday near a sedan crushed under a tank's treads and smoldered. "This is the gift of Mr. Bush?" he asked, his shirt smeared with his brother's blood.

Hollis and other soldiers at both banks said gunfire came from all directions from men posted on rooftops and behind walls. In one engagement, US military officials said about a dozen attackers were seen running out of a nearby mosque and firing.

Throughout the battles, Rudesheim and others said, the fighters - though outgunned - showed a level of tactical sophistication. Divided into squads, they used taxis, BMWs and white Toyota pickups to reposition their fighters in back alleys as the battle unfolded. Guerrillas were posted at routes leading in and out of the city. Improvised mines were placed along the streets.

The shells of four cars sat in the hospital parking lot. Nearby was the wreckage of a minibus that carried Iranian pilgrims. Someone had scrawled on it in English, "No USA, Down USA."

Many Iraqis insisted they supported the guerrillas and accused US forces of firing randomly as they withdrew. "Everyone is with the resistance," said Safa Hamad Hassan, 22, whose cousin lay in a hospital bed.

"Saddam Hussain is finished. We are protecting our honour and our land."