Night Fire

When darkness falls, the men of the U.S. Army's 1-22 Infantry Brigade go to work. Operating in hostile territory, the troops use their night-vision capabilities to surprise the enemy. TIME photographer BENJAMIN LOWY accompanied a three-man sniper team on a night mission in Tikrit last week. From the roof of a five-story building, the team staked out an intersection dubbed "RPG alley," the site of numerous rocket-propelled-grenade attacks on U.S. convoys. Because sniper teams are clandestine units, photographs of the troops were shot using a soldier's night optical device, providing a glimpse inside America's shadow war.