"Civilians were out of their houses, looking out of windows, waving to us... then we were ambushed," Cole, a 39-year-old Texan, told a press conference Wednesday at the Landstuhl military hospital in western Germany.

"The enemy is unscrupulous enough to hide behind civilians," he said, as international concern was growing over mounting civilian casualties in Iraq.

"I saw first hand that not all the Iraqis fall into the category of being non-combatants," said Cole. A drip hanging from near his elbow was the only visible sign of the wound received near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

"To shed your uniforms and to hide among women and children like that..." his explanation dried up and he shook his head in disgust.

He explained his brush with death as "a pretty even mix of divine intervention along with training. The Lord was looking out for me that day."

But he admitted that "many of the civilians were just as afraid."

Gunnery Sergeant Bill Hale, a marine who also served in the first Gulf War in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, said the differences in the reception troops were getting from civilians more than a decade later was astonishing.

At the time, "resistance was minimal... Kuwaiti civilians were cheering as we came in. This time we don't really know what's behind those civilian clothes," said the shaven-headed New Jersey native.

Like Cole, Hale was also ambushed by Iraqis dressed in civilian clothes as he and his unit, worn out by their drive north, tried to secure a bridge near Nasiriyah in the middle of a rain and sandstorm.

The rocket attack came as the troops pulled up at a deserted petrol station which was supposed to serve as their temporary camp.

"I was airborne, I was playing superman," the beefy marine explained.

With his short, second tour of duty behind him, Hale said he was focusing on getting over his injury, now that he was no longer under morphine and the worst of the pain was gone.

"My main concern is being able to walk again... I'm getting some feeling back in my foot."

"I'd rather be back with my marines," said Lieutenant James Uwins, a 26-year-old from California who was wounded in the leg during the same ambush as Hale.

"I have to worry about setting off metal detectors at the airport now," he shrugged.

The three are among more than 220 wounded soldiers, 95 of them with combat injuries, who have passed through the US army's biggest military hospital outside the United States.

Some 1,800 personnel and 110 doctors work at Landstuhl centre.

They care for the soldiers in the first week after they are injured, treating their physical and psychological wounds before transferring them to the United States or sending them back to the Gulf region.

With criticism also mounting over the way the war was planned at the Pentagon, the marines had no complaints about the conditions they were forced to work under in Iraq.

When asked whether he thought enough US troops had been deployed, Cole said: "I do, despite the condition I am in now."

SPACE.WIRE