Having just about all the insurgents streaming into Baghdad is kind of like luring all the rats out into the open at the city dump. Plink at them and pick them off as they scamper to their goal of safety, then keep them holed up until they are starved down and have to come back outside.
After all, we have the UAVs with infra-red scanners, and they don't. So night is no longer the cover for them it once was.
We used to do that at night with 12 gauges & 22 rifles. I had an old Plymouth with a spotlight on it. We'd sit on the hood then turn the light on them. There was no 'luring' about it; they were there. After a few minutes they'd be in hiding and the light would go off. After another interval we'd turn the light back on and there'd they be again. It was something to do if nothing else presented itself. The town 'constable' would come out and shoo us off, but he understood. You bring up an old memory.
"So night is no longer the cover for them it once was."
I had a video that showed our guys taking out four or five bad guys. Two of them crawled under trucks, and our small cannon blew them apart anyhow. This was all at night.
(I have not served. My tagline honors my son and my cousin.)