The guerrilla war claimed another American life on Monday, in another stronghold of Saddam Hussein's. In Habbaniya, about 120km away, a soldier was killed when his convoy came under attack. He was the 187th American soldier to die in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared major combat in Iraq to be over.
An hour's drive north of Baghdad, Samarra is famous for its golden-domed mosque. It has remained a stronghold for those fighting the US occupation. Outside the town's hospital, a small crowd of Iraqis gathered around a bus they said had been destroyed in the fighting and began chanting an old refrain: "Our souls and our blood, we sacrifice to you, Saddam."
What Sunday's battle showed, with little doubt, is that US forces are confronting an enemy that is increasingly sophisticated, carrying out bigger attacks -- if fewer of them in recent weeks -- involving more soldiers and greater levels of coordination and intelligence.
On Sunday, Rudesheim and other officials said, the attackers apparently knew the time that the US troops were planning to deliver the money to branches of the Rafidan Bank on the eastern and western edges of the city.
Captain Andrew Deponai, one of the officers who coordinated the combat, said the attackers "split their force in half," with between 30 and 40 men positioned near each branch in "squad and team-sized elements so they could attack each bank from all sides."
They set up ambush points, he said, on likely routes for the US soldiers, and stored explosives and bombs there. The guerrillas concealed themselves in cars in back alleys, using BMW sedans, taxis and pick-up trucks. Like the Americans, he said, the guerrillas had snipers on the rooftops.
It was, he said, "a well-planned attack."
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