A study of flow and fracture under combined shear and normal stresses in deformation regions with rotations was undertaken using tubular specimens. The results of the microscopic study for the four resulfurized steels tested show that rotations play an important role in ductile fracture at inclusions even when the mean normal stress is compressive. Two mechanisms for ductile fracture with rotation are proposed. On the gross scale a relationship is found between the fracture strain and the stress state for a given inclusion content. Also, a strong inverse dependence of fracture strain on inclusion content is obtained. These results appear useful to determine limiting shear deformation in metal processing operations.