There were more substantial barriers, though: burned-out vehicles, tree trunks swept in on the tides that took out the garbage, and the rubble of a collapsed building.

A week later, the neighborhood still showed the scars of the military's nocturnal onslaught: burned-out vehicles, charred walls, melted cookware.

There was something unique and unmistakable about the stink of human fat cooked out of bodies and pooling under a burned-out armored vehicle.

Gina pointed through a side window at two burned-out vehicles pushed to one side of the road.

They drove through the dreadful remains of a recent battle, the desert littered with burned-out vehicles and smashed equipment.

Protesters appeared to be digging in at the barricades that they had constructed around town from sand bags, old tires, barbed wire and burned-out vehicles.

Mr. Hynes continued: "The other image is of a long line of burned-out Iraqi vehicles on the road to Kuwait.

The burned-out vehicles would be no problem; fire had taken care of any fingerprints.

'We Are Waiting' This afternoon, after the ultimatum passed, youngsters clambered over the remnants of battle, six burned-out vehicles, while grown-ups watched.

The town bore the marks of heavy fighting, with buildings in the centre burnt and pockmarked with bullet holes, and burned-out vehicles left in the streets.