The border areas where the refugees are housed were tense after an episode on Monday in which gunfire from Syrian government forces killed two refugees and wounded 23 people.
But a May 11 shooting in a town called Ahuas, in which gunfire killed four people whom neighbors said were innocent, led to concerns in Congress that the D.E.A.'s commandos were operating with impunity.
He and other witnesses described a scene of chaos in which gunfire went on for more than an hour, with coalition forces firing at the Afghan police and refusing to transport wounded detainees for medical care.
Describing an incident in which gunfire broke out near the Presidential palace, Lewis observed, "many motorists, trapped in the line of fire, spent the afternoon lying under their cars".
The idea of a slow, painful and bloody holding action in which gunfire is a nightly occurrence contrasts sharply, perhaps too sharply for comfort, with the display of overwhelming force, low casualties and lightning-swift conclusions that Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld put on in the spring.
The poet Nicholas Wallington wrote that: A temporary wooden building was constructed each year, called Dover Castle, from which gunfire salutes were sounded during the competitions.
