We hold competitions -- shooting mortars, cannons, muskets, carbines and revolvers at targets.
In daylight, soldiers visit Iraqi police checkpoints, questioning and frisking drivers and searching trunks, hoping their presence disrupts militants who have been shooting mortars at their outpost.
An AC-130 Specter gunship also strafed the area, trying to kill guerrillas shooting mortars at a nearby American base from a landfill, local residents said.
But until yesterday night they shot mortar shells and planted improvised explosive devices in Hayaniya's streets.
In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where occupation forces are in a tense standoff with Moktada al- Sadr, fighters with his militia shot mortar rounds at a Spanish base, said Muhammad Garawi, a spokesman for Mr. Sadr.
Roman, the deputy commander of a frontline rebel base in the suburb of Andreyevka, said government forces had shot mortars and cannon at them at about 10pm on Monday.
There is a cannon that shoots mortars and these mortars can blast your body to bits.
They were shooting from mortars, grenade launchers, and large-calibre machine guns.
"They shout, 'God is great,' and then they shoot a mortar," said Masim Wahab, one of Mr. Karim's neighbors.
Palestinians opened fire on the soldiers and also shot two mortar shells at them, the army said.
Wielding a trowel, he expertly shot some mortar onto a face of a brick (the "buttering"), spread it and efficiently turned to a row of already laid bricks with another trowel of mortar, which he then laid on and parted down the middle.
