Last US combat troops leave Iraq

The last American combat brigade left Iraq on Thursday.

Captain Christopher Ophardt, spokesman for the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, said the last of the unit’s vehicles crossed the border into Kuwait on Thursday morning.

As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the Khabari border crossing out of Iraq, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling armoured vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos.

Most of the brigade’s 4,000 soldiers have been driving out of Iraq in their armoured vehicles. A few hundred members stayed behind to finish administrative and logistical duties but will fly out of Baghdad on Thursday afternoon.

America’s combat role in the country ends on August 31.

About 50,000 troops will stay in Iraq until the end of next year.
Source: Press Association