BAGHDAD — Nawal Na'eem Karim was surprised last week to hear her toddler tell her, "Talaq inana! Talaq inana!" — "Bullets here! Bullets here!"

He was warning her to step cautiously past the windows. Their house is in a kill zone. At 18 months, her baby already had learned counterinsurgency survival. He still wears a diaper.

Karim's family is among hundreds in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim-dominated Amil neighborhood who are under siege in their homes; in this case from two local snipers, one apparently stationed in a minaret of a nearby Sunni Muslim mosque.

Her experience shows that the U.S. troop buildup has yet to penetrate everywhere in Baghdad, as President Bush pressed Thursday for more time for the increase to show results.

"Leaving now will be dangerous for Iraq, the region and the United States," he said.

The U.S. military spokesman here on Wednesday and President Bush on Thursday described the war mainly as a battle against al-Qaida. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner cited "hundreds" of insurgents from the group al-Qaida in Iraq who had been captured or killed since June, when American-led forces launched offensives in provinces north and east of the capital.

But Karim and her neighbors wish U.S. or Iraqi forces would concentrate on the local snipers. Because of that failing, from her perspective, the American troops can't leave soon enough. There's vigorous debate on this point, however, and some of her neighbors say U.S. troops are the only force that's still preserving order.

American military officials said they'd had reports of a sniper just outside Amil but were unable to confirm whether the shots came from a mosque. They recommended that residents call a Baghdad hot line. The number wasn't in service when reporters called several times Thursday.

The shooter took up shop a few months ago, presumably in a minaret of the Abu Bakar mosque, a couple of blocks from Karim's house. The mosque is in the al Janabat area, the only parcel in Amil — due west and just south of the fortified Green Zone — that Shiites don't control.

Earlier this month, another sniper took up a position to the west of the first shooter. This one targeted Karim's home, where the former schoolteacher lives with her husband, who makes a living working on generators, and their three sons. The older boys are 6 and 4.

On July 4, sniper bullets hit the backyard fence and the outside wall of her bedroom and came through a window, smashing a mirror in the kitchen.

Karim, 34, sometimes pokes her head through doorways before scampering from room to room. She's afraid to wash dishes in the kitchen sink. She tells her children not to play in the backyard garden, not to play out front, not to play by the windows.

She's frustrated, and looks forward to the day that U.S. troops will leave Iraq.

"You invaded Iraq in 20 days but the Amil neighborhood is still suffering for more than two years," she added.