May 1, 2003	Thursday	Safar 28, 1424

BAGHDAD, April 30: US troops gave Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a hero’s welcome in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, although some said that after a difficult assignment, they were ready to go home.

“Having someone like Rumsfeld come is damn good for morale,” said Specialist Nathan Biggerstaff, 21, from the US state of Missouri.

Mr Rumsfeld told 2,000 soldiers gathered at Baghdad international airport that what they had accomplished was “truly remarkable.”

“You rescued a nation, liberated a people. You have deposed a cruel dictator and you ended his threat to free nations,” said the defense secretary, the mastermind of the war to oust Saddam Hussein and the most senior official to visit the Iraqi capital since US tanks rolled in three weeks ago.

A 30-year-old special forces officer in the crowd said that “the mere fact that they are sending someone of that caliber here this early is a tremendous message.”—AFP