The deadly consequences of failing to recognise who's who in a war frequently waged by Iraqis in civilian clothing has had tragic fallout on all sides.

"It's hard to decipher whether people are friendly or enemy. You don't often see the enemy because they are hiding on roof tops or in houses while civilians are milling around outside," tank driver Sergeant Michael Simmons told AFP.

Simmons was wounded after a smiling group of villagers parked and left their nearby car. He said he relaxed because the village appeared friendly, then he was hit by missiles from a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launcher.

One landed on his tank, shrapnel speared his hand and chest but armour plates stopped the metal from piercing his stomach.

"It happens, a lot of people look like friendlies, then we take fire."

This was hammered home in Nasiriyah last week when troops wept openly after hearing Iraqis had killed marines by blasting an amphibious assault vehicle with a rocket after waving a white flag.

Farther north in Shatra, marines vowed payback after learning that a marine had been killed and his body desecrated before being strung-up from a town square by paramilitary troops in civilian clothes.

The evidence is everywhere, said Commander Ken Kelly whose platoon of medics has treated about 30 prisoners of war (POWs) and 10 civilians in recent days, none of the POWs were wearing military uniforms but were armed.

It's the same dress code at a nearby POW camp, where some 70 guerrillas sit in a biting wind all attired in everyday wear.

Four officers were partially clad in uniform and not all were Iraqi. Their guard told AFP at least two were from Jordan, others were Syrian.

Kelly said as he examined the POWs that there were reports that Egyptians and Chechens had also been treated by the Americans for battlefield wounds.

"It's fair to assume that a number of Jordanians will actually be Palestinian. They're combatants but they're not wearing uniforms and they are mercenaries carrying big wads of cash," he said.

Nearer al-Kut the headless body of another civilian sits in an old car.

Military sources said he had hidden his car behind sand bags and razor wire and was informing US military positions to his superiors in al-Kut as the marine convoys passed.

Intelligence had intercepted his mobile phone calls and dispatched a sniper to take him out. He was killed with a 50 caliber rifle shot by a sniper perched 1.5 kilometres (one mile) away.

At Hayy, casualties were lighter but included a civilian dressed Syrian armed with a mortar tube.

But the military does get it wrong, and seven women and children were killed two days ago after failing to stop at a road block. Scores of others have been hit but precise numbers are as hard to ascertain as defining the combatants.

Nevertheless, there are signs that the coalition is winning support from the Iraqi people, paticularly in the countryside.

As marines inched north along Route Seven women and children turned out in their best traditional dress, waving to passing troops, as white flags billowed from rooftops.

Near Hayy, one old man hoisted a child to his shoulders and posed for photos, other children flew kites while farmers drove cattle between tanks and armoured vehicles, when the convoy stopped.

Farmers have donated food and elders have rallied local forces in the south to help troops oust Baath Party officials at the village level.

This has made the task of identifying combatants even harder.

Combatants not in uniform are not covered by the Geneva Conventions and technically can be left to fend for themselves, if wounded.

"Even if they are terrorists they will still get the same treatment as a wounded marine would, and intelligence can sort out their status later," Kelly said. "We are not going back in terms of evolution to become barbarians."

That was evident at Nasiriyah when medics ran out of ambulance space and had an Iraqi POW to care for. Corpsman Tony Garcia placed the wounded man on the hood of a Humvee, and stood over his patient as the vehicle was driven through the crossfire of two separate fire fights until a safe place could be found.

That same treatment is reserved for civilians where corpsmen have been known to break the rules and evacuate entire families with their wounded relatives.

During one civilian evacuation, a 12-year-old boy kissed and hugged a marine before boarding a helicopter with his mother and injured baby sister.

His father and a brother had been killed in Iraqi and US crossfire and what was left of his family were stranded in the desert at night before being rescued by marines.

"I wish I had taken a photo of that kiss," Kelly said.

SPACE.WIRE