By Isabel Coles HEROR, Iraq (Reuters) - Weary and caked in mud, the first group of Kurdish militants to leave Turkey under a peace plan to end three decades of war descended a mountain into Iraq on Tuesday to be met with embraces from PKK comrades.

A Coptic Christian teacher in an Egyptian primary school will stand trial after colleagues and the parents of students accused her of insulting Islam and evangelising, a judicial source said on Tuesday. The trial of Dimyana Ubeid Abdel Nour will begin on May 21, the judicial source said. She has been freed on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,900) ahead of the hearing.

The Iraqi government said on Tuesday that it rejects the entry of Kurdish fighters from Turkey into its territory as a "flagrant violation" of the country's sovereignty and independence. "The Iraqi government confirms its rejection of the withdrawal and the presence of armed men of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside Iraqi territory, which is a flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty and independence," a statement from the cabinet said. The first group of PKK fighters, who are departing Turkey as part of a peace drive with Ankara, arrived in north Iraq on Tuesday.

Syria is willing to carry out a joint investigation with Turkey into deadly attacks in the border town of Reyhanli that Ankara has accused Damascus of masterminding, a Syrian minister said on Tuesday. "If the government of (Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan calls for a joint, transparent investigation by the two countries, we have no objection, in order to find the truth," Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said. "The truth must be announced to the Syrian and Turkish people," official media quoted him as saying.