Combat troops exit Iraq, 7 years after invasion

THE last US combat brigade pulled out of Iraq at dawn yesterday, a key milestone in the withdrawal of American forces more than seven years after the US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Under cover of darkness, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, crossed into neighbouring Kuwait ahead of the planned declaration of an end to US combat operations in Iraq by an August 31 deadline.

The pullout came two days after a suicide bomber killed 61 people at a Baghdad army recruiting centre in Iraq’s deadliest attack this year, sparking concern the country’s forces are incapable of handling security on their own.

So the US death toll — at least 4,415 by Pentagon count as of Wednesday — may not yet be final.

“Yes, they did,” Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom told AFP, when asked if the brigade had entered Kuwait. “The last one crossed at about 6am this morning.”

“They have a few more days to clean the equipment, prepare the equipment, get it ready for shipment and then they’ll fly out (to the United States).”

It took two days for 360 vehicles and 1,200 soldiers to travel from Camp Liberty on Baghdad’s outskirts and Camp Taji north of the capital, through the Shi’ite south and into the Gulf emirate, Bloom said.

The rest of the 4,000-strong brigade left by air.

Kuwait, which hosts several American military camps in its northern desert close to the border, as well as a naval base, was used as the springboard for the 2003 invasion.

About 56,000 US soldiers remain in Iraq, with that figure set to drop to 50,000 by September 1, less than a third of the peak level during the 2007 “surge”.

From September 1, the US mission in Iraq will be called “Operation New Dawn” instead of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, the name given to American operations since the invasion.

To fill the gap left by departing troops, the US State Department will more than double the number of security contractors it employs in Iraq to around 7,000, the New York Times reported.

Citing unnamed administration officials, it said private contractors would operate radar to warn of enemy fire, hunt for roadside bombs and fly surveillance drones.

A spike in violence in July, Iraq’s deadliest month since 2008, and Tuesday’s suicide attack blamed on al-Qaida have sparked disquiet over the readiness of Iraq’s own forces.

“This is an irresponsible withdrawal,” said Hamid Fadhel, political science professor at Baghdad University.

“There are dangers to do with security of the country, concerns and fears for Iraq’s external security, because of the lack of a military that is able to protect the country.”

Many Iraqis agreed, voicing doubts about their own security forces.

“It would have been better for the Americans to wait until the Iraqi army and police complete their training and become a truly loyal force,” said engineer Ali Khalaf, 30.

While US officers insist their Iraqi counterparts are up to the task, the country’s top military officer said American forces may be needed in the conflict-wracked nation for another decade.

However, that seems unlikely. The White House has repeatedly insisted that the withdrawal schedule, which will see the last US soldier depart at the end of next year, remains on track.

Saddam Hussein’s former deputy, Tareq Aziz, has accused Obama of “leaving Iraq to the wolves”.

He said in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper earlier this month that the United States should stay in Iraq to correct the mistakes it had made since the invasion.

There was a heavy sense of history being made yesterday as a line of heavily armoured American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2ndInfantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism, but lightened by the whoops and cheers of soldiers one step closer to going home.

When 18-year-old Luke Dill first rolled into Iraq as part of the US invasion, his Humvee was so vulnerable to bombs that the troops lined its floor with flak jackets.

Now 25 and a staff sergeant after two tours of duty, he rode out of Iraq in a Stryker, an eight-wheeled behemoth encrusted with armour and add-ons to ward off grenades and other projectiles.

“It’s something I’m going to be proud of for the rest of my life — the fact that I came in on the initial push and now I’m leaving with the last of the combat units,” he said.

Now, waiting for him back in Olympia, Washington, is the “Big Boy” Harley-Davidson he purchased from one of the motorcycle company’s dealerships at US bases in Iraq — a vivid illustration of how embedded the American presence has become since the invasion of March 20, 2003.

The US military kept a tight lid on security, restricting the media embedded with the US troops from reporting on the brigade’s movements until they were almost to the border.

The biggest threat was roadside bombs planted by Shi’ite extremist groups who have a strong foothold in the south, McKinney said.

But except for camels straying into the road, and breakdowns that required some vehicles to be towed, there were no incidents. The last of the Strykers rolled across the border just before 4am into Kuwait, honking their horns and waving to the small crowd gathered at the crossing.

Meanwhile, to the north, insurgents kept up a relentless campaign against the country’s institutions and security forces, killing five Iraqi government employees in roadside bombings and other attacks on Wednesday. Coming a day after a suicide bomber killed 61 army recruits in central Baghdad, the latest violence highlighted the shaky reality left by the departing US combat force and five months of stalemate over forming Iraq’s next government.

For Dill, who reached Kuwait with an earlier convoy, the withdrawal engendered feelings of relief.

“I know that to my brothers in arms who fought and died, this day would probably mean a lot, to finally see us getting out of here.”