Irbil: On the eve of the eighth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is meeting with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq.
Gates arrived on Friday in Irbil for talks with Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional Government, which is at the centre of an unresolved struggle for power and resources in the semi-autonomous north.
It is Gates' 13th trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief. He told US troops on Thursday that this probably is his last visit to the country that American forces invaded in March 2003. Baghdad fell on April 09, 2003.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, April 08, 2011, 15:20