Trump hails US military exit from Iraq after 12-year mission

Iraqi security officers ride on vehicles decorated with national flags (Hadi Mizban/AP)

President Donald Trump has hailed the US withdrawal of the last American troops from Iraq, ending a decades-long military presence that he said “marks the end of a very expensive excursion into Hell”.

Mr Trump in a social media post described the withdrawal by a September 30 deadline as “orderly”, and said: “It has been a long time, with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place, but soon, that will be part of history.”

He said the shift was a victory for the US, Iraq and a sign of victory over the so-called Islamic State group, which troops had been fighting for a dozen years.

Mr Trump’s comments about the end of the conflict come as his own decision earlier this year to launch a war with Iran has been compared to the Iraq war for its undefined mission as it nears its seventh month.