American soldiers retreated warily from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf yesterday after a furious crowd gathered around them to stop foreign soldiers from approaching one of the holiest shrines of Shia Islam.
"Everybody smile!" shouted the platoon commander as he told his baffled men to kneel down and point their weapons at the ground, in a surreal act of submission.
The mightiest army in the world is learning the hard way the awkward art of trying to "win the hearts and minds" of suspicious civilians.
In other cities civilians have largely been bystanders in the military drama, neither rising up to cheer nor uniting to resist.
But in Najaf, hundreds poured into the streets to block the way of American soldiers as they came within sight of the golden dome of the mosque. They waved the soldiers away as some explained in broken English: "In the city, OK. In the mosque, No!"
The first attempt by American forces to patrol the heart of an Iraqi city has been a disconcerting experience, underlining the need for extreme sensitivity in the region.
The mosque is the reputed burial place of Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam and the first Imam of Shia Islam.
It was damaged by Iraqi forces during the Shi'ite uprising against Saddam Hussein at the end of the 1991 Gulf war. But despite any hatred Najaf's people may harbour for Saddam, they seem resolutely opposed to having "infidel" soldiers violating the holy ground.
Nevertheless, the city's religious authorities seem to be reaching an accommodation with the occupying forces.
According to a US commander in the Gulf, Brig-Gen Vincent Brooks, a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric in Najaf has issued a religious edict urging Iraqis to remain calm and not to hinder American forces.
"Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who had been placed under house arrest by the regime for a considerable period of time, issued a fatwa," said Brig Brooks.
"It was done this morning, instructing the population to remain calm and to not interfere with coalition actions. We believe this is a very significant turning point and another indicator that the Iraqi regime is approaching its end."
A spokesman for the al-Khoie foundation, a London-based Shi'ite organisation, confirmed that the fatwa had been issued.
Across Najaf, American forces searched buildings for Fedayeen paramilitary fighters loyal to Saddam.
US officers said most of the Fedayeen forces had simply dropped their equipment and fled, but some were still putting up a fight.
"Ideally, we would kill them all. But if they choose to change their mind and flee, there's not much we can do," said Col Joseph Anderson, a brigade commander of the 101st Airborne Division, "But they lost their equipment and their chain of command, so that's OK too."
As soldiers fanned out on painstaking house-to-house searches, A10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft were called in to destroy vehicles mounted with machine-guns or anti-aircraft guns.
But there were still signs of continued resistance. Minefields that had been cleared were found to be planted with new mines yesterday.