& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Shadows in the night exhaust US troops

REUTERs, Near Najaf,
U.S. forces are finding it only takes a handful of guerrillas to unnerve a fighting force. Sometimes, just shadows in the night will do.
"Up, up, up," sentries screamed as they ran through a dusty engineers' camp at dead of night. "We're on 100 percent security."
That meant: everyone to defensive positions at the camp near Najaf in central Iraq -- everyone, rather than the one in four already ordered to stay up all night to watch for danger. Soldiers who had been slumped over steering wheels, lying on the ground or on top of vehicles -sleeping, or desperately trying to -raced to man the artificial earth mounds, up to 15 feet high, that ring the desert camp.
A score of militants armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades were prowling the area less than half a mile away, scouts had reported.
Some of the 200 soldiers here have already seen the hit-and-run raids by small militia groups, some in civilian dress, which have emerged as a key Iraqi tactic in the 6-day-old war.
Danger now looms everywhere, not just in obvious armed formations. Troops are on edge and are taking no chances -- but that brings its own risk. Fear and nerves might wear them down, depriving them of sleep and dulling their responses.
For four hours, from midnight until before dawn, they waited, squinting in the hazy, faint moonlight to detect anything suspicious moving through the sand whipped up by strong winds.
In the end, it was a false alarm. Had someone panicked by calling out the whole camp?
"We have got to be careful and make sure we respond properly to our intelligence, that we don't overreact, " Lt. Col. Paul Grosskruger, commander of the 94th Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division, told his officers.
ANYTHING MOVING
IS A THREAT
Scouts no longer look for obvious armed units but for a threat from any quarter, and anything
that moves in the desert scrub and the shabby irrigated fields is potentially hostile.
Soldiers were up much of the night and were left exhausted, meaning missions ended up being delayed the next day.
"This is the sort of thing that terrifies me. Your adrenaline starts pumping but you are tired and you are scared and you can't get back to sleep," soldier James Canaday, 22, from Oklahoma City, said as he returned from guard duty.
Commanders are trying to find the balance between complacency and being alert to a very real danger.
In the past 48 hours, U.S. forces around Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad, have faced sniper attacks, assaults by small militant bands using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, and false surrenders that turn into attacks.
"It puts everyone on edge," Grosskruger said.
"It's a tactic that can take its toll on soldiers. You have to stay alert and awake all the time, and you're always worried that the threat is there," said Lt. Mark Pietrak of the 535th Engineers Company.
He said he and a group of soldiers went only a few miles from camp on Sunday evening to find water. A grenade was thrown at their vehicles and they had to take cover in the scrub. It was eight hours before they got back.
Farmers, goatherds and other civilians cautiously watch the invading forces from the fields or from brick hovels, sometimes crowding round their vehicles begging. That now scares soldiers, many of whom had expected a heroes' welcome.