Sleuths in body armor

For soldiers inside a Stryker armored vehicle, a 25-ton, eight-wheeled fortified box, every trip is about the same.

THE U.S. soldier looked around a crowded Iraqi home and watched as an old man in a green dishdasha robe scooted across to an interpreter and whispered in his ear.

Soldiers try to get witnesses to come forward. But fear is their greatest obstacle.

In Baghdad’s chaos, U.S. soldiers become murder detectives. Fear, they learn, may thwart justice.

Times staff writer Doug Smith spent seven days in October on patrols in Baghdad with two platoons of the 4th (Tomahawk) Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.