Although they were unable to find them, the Marines from 3rd Battalion did encounter an Iraqi patrol and exchanged rounds with them before escaping.

Elsewhere, snipers attacked a joint American and Iraqi patrol in Baquba.

The closer they got to Saddam's hometown and the Tikrit palace, the more Iraqi patrols they spotted.

Three roadside bombs exploded near American and Iraqi patrols, wounding a total of eight Iraqis.

As he described these operations, they involved shoot-and-run attacks on Iraqi patrols and the hurling of grenades at Iraqi concentrations.

Insurgents also threw a hand grenade at an Iraqi patrol in Falluja, wounding two soldiers.

The goal is to make Iraqi patrols the norm, with stability no longer dependent on the large foreign force that has so constantly enraged Iraqis.

Near the college of Fine Arts in north-central Baghdad, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi patrol killed three and wounded six others.

A car bomb on Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad meant for an Iraqi patrol killed one soldier but also wounded four civilians.

But driving in the desert is dangerous, even when there is no need to evade American M.P.'s or Iraqi patrols.