Meanwhile back at "The Alamo"

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070215outpost,1,5985600.story?coll=chi-news-hed

By James Janega
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 15, 2007, 8:04 PM CST

Battle lines drawn in Baghdad streets

BAGHDAD -- The men of Charlie Company and their Iraqi comrades were just three blocks from their new home base in the middle of Baghdad's Ghazaliyah neighborhood when the sniper's bullet whistled past Pfc. David Orr's cheek.

Four more shots crashed into the palm fronds and wall behind the men as they dove for cover amid the stores on Exchange Street. One of the Iraqis dashed for the door of a grocery.

After regrouping around the corner, the soldiers charged the house where they thought the sniper was hiding. Inside, they found only a terrified, chain-smoking father and his young son. They had heard shots, but didn't know where they came from.

"Almost every day there is gunfire from this corner," the father said.

The soldiers searched a few more blocks but found nothing. So they went back home, to a nearby, ramshackle group of sandbagged houses they call "The Alamo."