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The U.S.-led coalition turned its focus to Saddam Hussein's hometown on Saturday, where fighters are believed to be regrouping for a last stand. But after the peaceful handover of northern Iraq's two largest cities and intensive bombing of Tikrit, the city may fall without much of a fight.

The dusty desert town of Tikrit has been so battered by U.S. airstrikes, Central Command officials said Friday that it seems unlikely the fighters left there will be able to muster an effective force. Many Iraqi troops may have already fled.

Planners are not ruling out a battle. One of Saddam's longtime confidants, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is believed to have moved missiles into the Tikrit area to bolster its defenses.

U.S. officials have seen remnants of Republican Guard and other Iraqi army units join up with other stragglers in and around Tikrit, about 90 miles northwest of Baghdad. Vehicles and other military equipment remain.

"You have elements, remnants of that that are coalescing and forming composite units," said Navy Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command spokesman.

However, after weeks of airstrikes and the collapse of the regime in Baghdad and other parts of the country, the units reforming in Tikrit are not believed to be an effective fighting force, Kitchens said.

Tikrit has long been a power center for Iraq's Sunni Muslim tribes, who may plan to hold out for as long as possible out of fear of losing power to the nation's Shiite majority. The Iraqi president drew many members of his inner circle from Tikrit, and built a number of fortified palaces and military installations there many of which have been targeted in airstrikes.

A few thousand Special Republican Guard troops are believed to remain in northern Iraq, including near Tikrit and Bayji, a town about 25 miles to the north.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that ground forces and special forces are "degrading regime forces in and near Tikrit." He told reporters at the Pentagon that there are "still enemy targets north of Baghdad, in Tikrit and some of the other major cities up there that we're going to have to deal with."

U.S. troops in western Iraq seized control of crossings on two highways leading into Syria after the Iraqi colonel in charge of the checkpoints surrendered.

They found tough resistance near Qaim, the main town on the Syrian border, though the fight was expected to end soon. "There have been intelligence reports that the leaders ... want to surrender," Myers said.

The unexpected stiff defense there raised speculation that the town may be site for weapons of mass destruction, Central Command said. Most Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles fired in the 1991 Gulf War were launched from the area.

In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, Iraqi forces seemed to vanish as soldiers dropped their arms and uniforms rather than fight U.S.-led forces. Chaos ruled the streets Friday, with banks ransacked and ambulances hijacked at gunpoint. The turmoil just a day after a similar free-for-all in the northern city of Kirkuk was a potent reminder of the huge challenges ahead in postwar Iraq.

Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer, commander of a U.S. Special Operations unit that helped secure Mosul, met with local tribal and clan leaders Friday and announced a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. He said U.S. forces would not tolerate looting or reprisals.

Saddam's strongholds in the north tumbled like dominoes; on Thursday, Kirkuk and its vast oil fields fell with barely a fight. The Kurdish presence in Mosul and Kirkuk prompted Turkish leaders to review plans for beefing up Turkey's military presence in northern Iraq.

Washington has promised to quickly take control of the Kirkuk area from Kurdish fighters. The Turkish government fears stronger and richer Iraqi Kurds could one day seek independence and encourage separatist Kurds in Turkey.

Kurds consider Kirkuk a pillar of their ethnic homeland. They also feel strong bonds with parts of Mosul, where about a quarter of the population is Kurdish.

The main feature of Mosul is its role as a bastion of Arab culture in northern Iraq. About two-thirds of the Mosul area is Arab. Distrust of the U.S.-allied Kurdish militiamen is evident and could become a point of friction.

photo credit and caption:

An Iraqi man walks with a young boy past the destroyed remains of the Iraqi government security service building in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, Friday, April 11, 2003. The building was hit by coalition bombing when the city was still in Iraqi government control. (AP Photo/CP, Kevin Frayer)

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