But Falluja is approaching a turning point, American officials acknowledge, precariously balanced between rebuilding or degenerating into the urban battlefield it once was.

The projection of conventional forces or the utilization of high-tech weapons may be of marginal effectiveness under the jungle canopy of a rural insurgency or in the urban battlefield of modern terrorism.

For a time, this frightening urban battlefield became a pulsing cacophony of strange and deadly sounds.

It is a rebuilding amid an urban battlefield.

With mouse-holing, combatants are able to move around an urban battlefield under cover, without needing to expose themselves to enemy fire or observation.

But by next spring, after city officials negotiate with disparate factions that have turned west midtown into an urban battlefield, both subtle and substantial revisions will likely be written into the regulations.

HANDLING HALLWAYS The urban battlefield presents a maze of corridors that must be approached methodically.

Near midnight Tuesday, Israeli forces fired bright white flares that burst over the Tel Sultan housing project near here, illuminating an urban battlefield that resounded with bursts of machine-gun fire.

Thus an American victory requires ground troops to enter Baghdad, where they will encounter first-hand the complicated conditions of the urban battlefield.

Just another busy night on the urban battlefield.