Word: tikrit
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...barren, Shi'ite-dominated south, where support for Saddam's regime is soft. "We figured they would cave," says a Pentagon official. "They aren't the Republican Guard." But Saddam's most loyal fighters remain entrenched farther north, outside the capital and in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. While their numbers are dwindling by the day--from desertions if not from U.S. bombs--at least some are expected to try to lure the invaders into a bloody urban campaign. U.S. and British troops are also still scrambling to uncover Iraq's suspected arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, a task...
...troops would not fight. The diehards--led by the 20,000 members of the Special Republican Guard and the Special Security Organization, which would be suspected of hiding banned weapons--would be expected to hole up in greater Baghdad, which includes Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 100 miles north of the capital. The Pentagon believes that the Iraqi dictator's 24-year reign would come to an end, one way or another, somewhere in that vicinity...
TRIBAL TIES At least three-quarters of Iraqis are members of one of the country's 150 tribes, which are alliances of family clans. To stay in power, Saddam has cultivated the loyalty of influential tribes. He has also seeded the government and military with members of the Tikrit-based tribe to which he belongs...
...operational theater, however, temperatures will soon begin to rise with the onset of the sweltering spring. And the Iraqi military has reportedly begun redeploying some of its better fighting units from the north, probably to reinforce the defenses of Baghdad and Tikrit. From a military point of view, if this war must be fought in the waning weeks of winter, it must be launched sooner rather than later. And listening to President Bush, it's not hard to deduce that operational concerns may soon eclipse diplomatic ones in determining Iraq's immediate future...
...There?s nothing special about Tikrit, it?s like any Iraqi town," says Fadil Abbas Hamid, 22, an economics student at the local university. "Nothing special, we just happen to be the hometown of the President," echoes Aquif Al-Talij, 30, a low-level government official...