John Kerry arrived in Iraq's Kurdish region Tuesday in a US diplomatic drive aimed at preventing the country from splitting apart in the face of Sunni militants pushing towards Baghdad. Iraq's security forces have managed to retake a crucial border crossing along the frontier with Syria, but were struggling to contain advances by insurgents, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have taken swathes of five provinces north and west of the capital.
The US Secretary of State's unannounced trip to Arbil came a day after he pledged "intense" American support to Iraq to repel the insurgent offensive which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, alarmed world leaders, and put Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki under pressure at home and abroad.
Kerry landed in Arbil to urge Iraqi Kurdistan's president Massud Barzani to work to uphold Iraqi cohesion, after Barzani said Iraq was in a "different era" and that Kurds would "determine their future".
Kerry would highlight "the important role that the Kurds can play in helping the central government address... challenges for the benefit of all Iraqis," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
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