More than 2,500 American soldiers have encircled the city in an attempt to flush out Mr. Sadr - and the residents here are caught in the middle.

In a month of skirmishes across about 4,000 square miles of towering peaks, gullies and rocky mountainsides, 1,500 soldiers have split and encircled a guerrilla column that at one point numbered 360 fighters.

The Pakistani soldiers encircled General Aidid's compound while the Italians formed an outer ring.

The soldiers had encircled them.

Marines and Iraqi soldiers encircled Haqlaniya on Friday and began to move in, engaging in firefights with guerrillas.

The first time, 80,000 soldiers encircled Nanjing in March 1853, led by Qin Rigang and Li Xiucheng.

He pushed his way past the soldiers encircling him and ran to the seers.

"The Japanese soldiers already encircled them in a crescent formation along the river," Cpl. Riichi Kurihara wrote in his diary.

Of the 200,000 - 250,000 soldiers encircled 90,000 survived to be taken prisoner.

British soldiers encircled the swampland through which the Japanese were retreating, condemning the Japanese to a night in the mangroves which were home to thousands of saltwater crocodiles.