[Enchante]

interesting account here from the 4th member of their little travel group, who claims that they found themselves in that area in total innocence and ignorance:

Statement from 4th hiker in Iraqi Kurdistan, Aug 06, 2009

[Allegra]

Thanks for the link.

Sulaimaniya is very beautiful, as are Dohuk and Erbil. I went to Kurdistan in 2006 and it was nothing like the rest of Iraq. We were able to actually walk in the streets to restaurants and shops with no body armor on.

This was back when Baghdad was just freakin' insane. I was up there in Kurdistan on a business trip as we were standing up some camps and coming back to Baghdad was not easy after that. :)

I still think it awfully strange that these people wandered accidentally into Iran...