IRAQ: Kurds in northern Iraq welcomed Gen Jay Garner with cheers, hugs and a shower of petals 12 years after he helped them break free from Saddam Hussein.
Gen Garner told an emotional crowd of Kurdish leaders and students in the city of Sulaimaniya, 330 km from Baghdad, that their self-governed region was a model for Iraq after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam. "Let's take the spirit of free people that we have here in the Kurdish provinces and spread it," he said.
Gen Garner also held talks in Dukan with rival Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani, veteran leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Talabani said people who opposed the war followed an "appeasement policy, not a peace policy". Barzani said: "We are very pleased that the entire Iraqi people will be the masters of their destiny. They will govern themselves by themselves."
Kurdish groups have run parts of northern Iraq since US-led forces gave them air cover to keep out Saddam's forces after the Gulf War in 1991.