US Troops finally got out of Iraq

IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER, Dec 18: The last US forces left Iraq and entered Kuwait on Sunday, nearly nine years after launching a divisive war to oust Saddam Hussein, and just as the oil-rich country grapples with renewed political deadlock.

The last of roughly 110 vehicles carrying 500-odd troops mostly from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, crossed the border at 7:38am (0438 GMT), leaving just 157 military trainers at the US embassy, in a country where there were once nearly 170,000 troops on 505 bases.

It ended a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead, many more wounded, and 1.75 million Iraqis displaced, after the US-led invasion unleashed sectarian killings.

`I am proud all Iraqis should be proud, like all those whose country has been freed,` 26-year-old baker Safa, who did not want togive his real name, told AFP in Baghdad.

`The Americans toppled Saddam, but our lives since then have gone backward.

A 50-year-old mother-offour who gave her name only as Umm Mohammed added: `I don`t think we can ever forgive the Americans for what they did to us.

The Americans were also happy. `It feels good, it feels real good` to be out of Iraq, Sergeant Duane Austin said after getting out of his vehicle in Kuwait.

`It`s been a pretty long year it`s time to go home now.` The 27-year-old fatherof-two, who completed three tours in Iraq, added: `It`s been a long time, coming and going. It`s been pretty hard on all of us. ... (It will) be a nice break to get back, knowing that it`s over with now.

The last vehicles transporting US troops out of Iraq left the recently handed over Imam Ali Base outside thesouthern city of Nasiriyah at 2:30am to make the 350km journey south to the Kuwaiti border.

They travelled down a mostly deserted route, which US forces paid Shia tribal sheikhs to inspect regularly to ensure no attacks could take place.

Five hours later, they crossed a berm at the Kuwaiti border lit with floodlights and ringed with barbed wire.

The withdrawal comes as Iraq struggles with renewed political deadlock as its main Sunni-backed bloc said it was boycotting parliament and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki moved to oust one of his deputies.

Mr Maliki sent a letter to parliament urging MPs to withdraw confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, a member of the secular Iraqiya party, after Mr Mutlak accused him of being `worse than Saddam, an aide to the premier said.

-AFP