A KURDISH community group has handed a letter to Tony Blair thanking him for helping liberate Iraq.

The Greenwich Kurdish Community Association handed over a letter and cards at 10 Downing Street.

Community worker Shamal Namiq, 42, from Lee, who was left disabled after being shot by Saddam Hussein's soldiers in 1986, fled Iraq in 1990.

He says the war was justified to end the dictatorship, which gassed 5,000 Kurds in Halabja and evicted others Kurds from northern Iraq to make way for Arabs.

Mr Namiq said: "I would like to thank Tony Blair for freeing Iraqi people who have suffered for more than 35 years under Saddam Hussein's regime."

He added: "Two of my brothers have been missing since 1991 when they were captured in Kirkuk during the Kurdish uprising.

"I miss them greatly and I would like to go back to Iraq to check if anybody knows anything about them."

April 29, 2003 16:00