When trouble begins brewing in the country, Tikrit has often been Saddam's chosen retreat, where he has a number of heavily fortified bunkers and a network of loyal supporters beholden to the regime.

It was in this provincial capital on the banks of the Tigris some 170 kilometers (100 miles) north of Baghdad that Saddam began his escape from a hard-knocks childhood of grinding poverty and lowly status to become one of the most powerful men in the Arab world.

Saddam Hussein was born in the village of Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit, 65 years ago and it is the city that throws the biggest party every April 28 to mark the event that changed Iraq's history.

Though poor, Saddam's family belonged to the Sunni Muslim al-Bejat clan, part of the region's dominant al-Bu Nasir tribe.

These connections provided a reliable safety net for Saddam in his quarter-century grip on power.

The tradition of Tikriti men holding top positions in the military and political establishment reaches back to the monarchy, when influential locals served as aides and advisors until 1958.

When the Baath party took power, an influential clique from Tikrit was already at the helm of all major institutions and Saddam saw to it that he was surrounded by locals loyal to him and the clan.

According to Con Coughlin, author of the 2002 biography "Saddam: The Secret Life," the area was notorious for its bitter penury and systematic reprisal killings.

Tikrit is the capital of Salaheddin, the province given the Arabic name for Saladin, Islam's most celebrated warrior renowned for defeating the Crusaders in the 1187 battle for Jerusalem.

"Like Saladin, the conqueror of the Crusaders, who also, according to legend, came from Tikrit, Saddam believed his destiny was to be remembered and revered as the leader who restored Iraq and the Arab world to their rightful glory," Coughlin said.

"Accordingly, Saddam's latest palace featured columns topped with his own head bearing Saladin's helmet."

Legend also has it that the Tartar hordes led by descendants of Genghis Khan stopped in Tikrit on their Mesopotamian campaign to build a pyramid out of the skulls of their vanquished victims.

Before the war began, residents declared they would provide such fierce resistance to any US-led attack that it would become the Americans' Stalingrad, in a reference to the Russian city battle that halted invading German troops during World War II.

"The effective response to any aggression will come from every house and every person able to carry arms, both women and men," the imam of the local mosque where 40 Islamic fighters who perished in a seventh century battle to liberate Tikrit from the Persians and the Romans told reporters last month.

"We are very proud that Saddam Hussein is from this region and from this town, just as Saladin. And we know, without the shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein will be as great a warrior in case of any aggression," Sheikh Mohammed al-Alussi said.

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