But perhaps the biggest challenge for the Kurds is navigating the tricky political waters ahead. Bakhtiyar of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said the Kurds worry about interference by neighbors Turkey and Iran.
Turkey has said it wants to bolster its tiny military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan to guard against a refugee influx and fight any effort to establish a separatist Kurdish state -- which could encourage Turkey's Kurdish separatists. Kurds have vowed to fight the Turks if they invade.
Kurds say they have prepared their 70,000-man Peshmerga guerrilla militia, but the force has come nominally under control of the US military command.
Americans fear Kurdish fighters will try to return to Kirkuk and take revenge on Arabs that have moved into the city.
But Iraqi Kurdistan has many armed militias, and some guerrilla leaders say they will do whatever they want, regardless of American orders.
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