The inevitable trend accompanied the wave of looting and unrest that broke out here after US-backed Kurdish forces rolled into the city on April 11, practically without a fight after clinching a deal with the city's Arab tribal chiefs.

Kimo and Jalal Bassam were among those who went after officials of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath party officials once authority collapsed, saying they wanted to avenge the killings of their family members.

"We were children, our uncles resisted the Baath party, they were brave. They were executed in the middle of the street and our houses confiscated. Since then, we've been fighting against the party," said Kimo, 23, standing in a room among assault rifles and grenades stolen from local Baath party headquarters.

His uncles were killed during the Kurdish uprising against Saddam in northern Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War.

"When the war started, we decided to get revenge," he added.

Jalal, 26, spent eight years in prison. "We know those loyal to Saddam Hussein. If we see them in the street, we will kill them. The officials have all disappeared and are hiding. Our mission is to find them," he said flatly.

Kimo shows his two broken teeth, burn marks on his arms and torn fingernails. He spent more than four years in prison. When Baghdad fell, he was awaiting execution for having tried to stab some Baath party officials, he said.

But neighbors said the Bassam brothers were "criminals".

"They say they were tortured, but they are thieves," said one, requesting anonymity so that he would not be attacked.

"To have electricity, water, food rations, to study and work you had to be a member of the party. Every family needed at least one person in the Baath party. This did not mean we were loyal to Saddam," he added.

From the remarks of another man, whom the Bassam brothers tried to kill, it becomes clear how difficult it is to decide which Baath party officials took part in repressive policies and whether the claims of those seeking revenge can be believed.

"I'm an engineer. To study, we had to be in the party. My job was to provide weapons to party headquarters. Everyone likes me in the street, I never wrote a report about anyone," he said.

The 40-year-old agricultural specialist was not home when the Bassams came to his house, armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades, but two of his cousins were injured by them.

Kami and Jalal said however they were after the engineer because, a few days before Mosul fell, he and seven other Baath party officials had shot up their house and then beaten up their youngest brother.

The engineer for his part complained to police about the attempt to kill him, but was sent home. The police told him they were understaffed and were already swamped with other problems.

Kurdish forces pulled out of Mosul and Kirkuk over the weekend. But the US forces that replaced them have a difficult task ahead reining in violence, especially as the police force does not have the trust of people in the street.

SPACE.WIRE