IT’S THE TOUGHEST kind of battle imaginable. A sniper around every corner. Ambushes on all sides. Booby traps and mines at every step. It’s hard to tell friend from foe. Casualties are the rule, not the exception. Welcome to urban combat.

As U.S. forces pick their way through the densely populated cities of Iraq in search of Baath-party holdouts, Fedayeen Saddam fighters, and remnants of the eviscerated Iraqi army, they will be fighting on one of the most feared battlegrounds–the city.