Bayji, Iraq, Nov. 25, 2004: Under a sooty cloud from a nearby oil refinery, Sgt. Melvin Davis, 32, of Battery B, Task Force 1-7, surveys the empty main street. Most of the buildings downtown were badly damaged in separate firefights Nov. 9 and Nov. 14. A car bomb attack Nov. 17 against a U.S. Army patrol about 100 meters past where the armored vehicle is sitting killed 10 Iraqis and slightly injured three soldiers in a Bradley fighting vehicle.

Read Steve Liewer’s report from Bayji here.

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• From the archives, 2004: Insurgent attacks erode months of strategic progress in once-calm Bayji