Outside Baghdad, a close encounter with a roadside bomb

Attacked four nights in a row while on patrol in this hostile town, US marines rolled out late Tuesday, deliberately preparing to pick a fight.

But instead of targeting the Americans with bullets and grenades, Iraqi insurgents laid another surprise: A softly blinking blue cellphone hidden in a bush, wired and taped as a detonator, and linked to a long red detonation cord that disappeared into the cab of a burned-out oil tanker on the side of the road.

Waiting to blow inside: three 130mm artillery shells, daisy-chained to explode simultaneously .

The cellphone needed only a call to trigger the explosion.

The next American target that would pass were the six vehicles and 31 marines of the Alpha Company, 1st Battalion 2nd Marines, with lights dimmed and weaponry primed.

The likelihood of finding this improvised explosive device (IED) in the dark and on the traffic-laden north-south Highway 8 - which US patrols usually speed along - may have been even less than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

But find it they did, as the convoy serendipitously steered for a moment into the oncoming lane and halted close to the IED. Marines dismounted and used flashlights for a random search of their perimeter - and spied the blinking phone and the detonation cord.

"That's the Holy Ghost for you," said 2nd Lt. Mark Nicholson, the platoon commander, as he ordered traffic halted in both directions and razor-wire barriers set up. These marines, who have almost daily experience with the IEDs - either blowing up or being discovered - grumbled that their plans to draw out an attack were now off.

"This just gets to be a nuisance," said Lieutenant Nicholson, angry too that the anticipated firefight was unlikely to happen.

"Have you ever been hit by an IED? It's crazy," says Nicholson. "We all have [been hit], sometimes more than once a day."

The platoon commander tells of one day not long ago - before the 1-2 Marines seized two large weapons caches in the area - when his patrol was on the troubled west side of the Euphrates River. The first IED tore away the fingers of one marine and killed a civilian. Then the marines hit another IED as they were being relieved.

"Everyone said, 'Whew, we made it!' and all the rest of that night and the next day we got mortared," says Nicholson. "They on the way back, we hit a [car bomb]. There was nothing left but a motor and a disk brake drum - that was it. It blew a track [armored vehicle] off the road, and my platoon sergeant had to be evacuated."

Upon finding this IED, Nicholson radioed for an explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) team, to examine the bomb and make it safe. Marines took defensive positions, almost certainly under the eye of the would-be bomber. A smattering of residences and hole-in-the-wall businesses lined both sides of the highway.

"Someone is watching us right now," said Nicholson, referring to the bomber. "Take great care. Night is the worst time for IEDs."

The EOD team arrived with a powerful marine armored security detail: 10 vehicles in all, packing antitank weapons and high-caliber guns - almost too powerful for some from Alpha Company.

"Warn your marines!" said the security detail chief. "If we receive any fire, we are laying down 2,000 to 3,000 rounds, before we even dismount. If we start, you guys should just take cover until we're done."

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