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    December 18, 2011

US Troops Leave Iraq

   Last American forces cross border into Kuwait

   VOA News
   The last convoy of U.S. military trucks cross the Iraqi border into
   Kuwait, December 18, 2011. Photo: Reuters
   The last convoy of U.S. military trucks cross the Iraqi border into
   Kuwait, December 18, 2011.

   The last convoy of U.S. soldiers left Iraq and entered Kuwait Sunday.
   The last of the vehicles filled with several hundred troops crossed the
   border at 7:38 a.m. - 0438 UTC - leaving behind just a couple hundred
   soldiers at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
   The withdrawal of U.S. forces ends nearly nine years of war, costing
   the lives of some 4,500 U.S. soldiers, tens of thousands of Iraqis, and
   hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars.
   The war in Iraq began in 2003 with a 'shock and awe' campaign to oust
   dictator Saddam Hussein.
   At the height of the war, more than 170,000 U.S. troops were stationed
   in Iraq at more than 500 bases. By Saturday, fewer than 3,000 U.S.
   troops remained.
   Critics have chastised the U.S. for leaving behind a destroyed country
   with thousands of widows and orphans, a people deeply divided along
   sectarian lines, and without rebuilding much of the devastated
   infrastructure.
   Prime Minister Nouri a-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government struggles with a
   power-sharing arrangement among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.
   U.S. President Barack Obama says the future of Iraq is 'in the hands of
   its own people.'

   Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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