In north, a city with close ties to Hussein chooses to fight back

The mayor of the city would not even dare to talk to him because he is too scared," he says.

In a regime that filtered fear throughout Iraq, Wahash serves as one of Hussein's most dreaded enforcers; even polite politicians call him Mosul's main thug. "He will smash your head for the littlest reason," says Mr. Osman. "He doesn't tolerate anyone."

How long Mosul can tolerate bombardment from US forces cooperating with the pesh merga - Kurdish for "those who face death" - is not clear. The Iraqis' gradual retreats could represent a consolidation of positions that will be defended until they are decimated - although others say the city will fall as soon as Baghdad does.

The front line appears to be moving west. A pesh merga commander said Monday that his troops advanced three miles on the road from Dohuk to Mosul, Reuters reported. The Iraqis are desperate to defend the area south of Mosul, which Allied forces are working to cut off. The road leads through Tikrit, Hussein's birthplace, to Baghdad.

"Iraqi lines here are crumbling," says Hoshyar Zebari, who is in charge of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] "The bombing campaign is devastating them."

Observers expect a combination of Baathist nationalism and feelings for home turf will keep fighters there from giving up too quickly, despite the overwhelming force they confront. The lack of accurate news accounts from the Iraqi regime - only Baghdad television is available to viewers in Iraq - may also factor in.

"The majority of the Iraqi Army corps' senior officers are from Mosul. It will be a major distraction for those people if Mosul is falling. There will be more concerns for Mosul [than other places] for their families, their relatives, so I think that will distract them and they'll have to defend it," says Mr. Zebari.

That may be part of the underlying US strategy. The northern front has been less of a blitz than a slow bleeding, and that may serve the battle for Baghdad well. With Mosul's forces occupied, Hussein must keep regiments there that might otherwise move south and try to defend the capital.

"They cannot endure the power of the pesh merga, and they will surrender," says Dindar Chato Kamo, a 19-year-old Kurdish soldier watching the bombardment up ahead. "It will be good for us. I expect to be in Mosul soon, maybe a week," he says - and it will be a time for celebration.

The hope is that it will not also be a time for retribution. Mosul, like other cities, has seen spasms of violence when power shifts or rebellions fail. But people here say that KDP leader Massoud Barzani has ordered them not to engage in reprisal attacks. Nor will they be allowed to rush into the city to reclaim lost property.

Zebari is from Mosul; he has a house there he left in 1975. He says Kurds will not try to "reclaim" the city as their own, as its population is overwhelmingly Arab.

The fact that much of Iraq's military might originates in Mosul predates Hussein. That, Kurds here say, offers some hope that when Mosul fighters see the tide turning, they will give up. Says Lt. Sardar Khadir, in charge of general security here: "Mosul's people are always clapping with the one who is the most powerful."

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