Last US combat troops leave Iraq

18/12/2011| IslamWeb

The last US combat troops based in Iraq have crossed the border into Kuwait, completing their withdrawal from the country after nearly nine years of war.

The last of roughly 110 vehicles carrying 500-odd soldiers traversed the border around 7:38am local time (0438 GMT) on Sunday, leaving just a couple of hundred soldiers at the US embassy.

Soldiers standing just inside the crossing on the Kuwaiti side of the border waved and snapped photos as the final trucks crossed over, well ahead of a December 31st deadline to leave Iraq.

The withdrawal ends a war that left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead, many more wounded, and 1.75 million Iraqis displaced.

The final troops completed the massive logistical challenge of shuttering hundreds of bases and combat outposts, and methodically moving more than 50,000 US troops and their equipment out of Iraq over the last year.

As of Thursday, there were two US bases and less than 4,000 US troops in Iraq, a dramatic drop from the roughly 500 military installations and as many as 170,000 troops during the surge ordered by President George W Bush in 2007.

Low-key exit

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said: "This is significant because it is not just symbolic, but it is actually the end of the US war."

The low-key exit stood in sharp contrast to the high octane start of the war, which began before dawn on March 20, 2003, with an air strike in southern Baghdad.

USA leaved behind a destroyed country with thousands of widows and orphans, a people deeply divided along sectarian lines and without rebuilding the devastated infrastructure.

Some Iraqis celebrated the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited nor welcome in a proud country.

Political deadlock

The withdrawal comes at a time when the country struggles with renewed political deadlock as the Iraqiya bloc, which won March 2010 elections and drew most of its support from minority Sunnis, is at loggerheads with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraqiya, the largest bloc in the coalition, has said it will suspend its participation in parliament, accusing the Iraqi prime minister of being autocratic and of not consulting.

US President Barack Obama met in Washington with Maliki last week, vowing to remain "committed to Iraq".

PHOTO CAPTION

A Kuwaiti soldier looks at US soldiers crossing the border between Iraq and Kuwait.

Al-Jazeera