U.S. Finally Ends Iraq Combat Operations

Iraq's military is ready and able to take over security operations as the United States ends it combat role and prepares for a major troop withdrawal, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Sunday. With this, The United States will withdraw about 4,000 troops from Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Last remaining batches of American soldiers were pulled out of Iraq on Thursday, a sign that United States will be ending its opeartions in the said Middle Eastern country. The last of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division armored vehicles rolled into Kuwait Thursday morning, seven-and-a-half years since former President George W. Bush launched an all-out war against then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on suspicion that the oil-rich country in the Middle East was keeping weapons of mass destruction. However, thousands of military and civilian deaths later, the U.S. has still to find the purported WMD cache of Hussein’s regime.

 

"We do believe they are ready to assume full operations in Iraq," Gen. Ray Odierno said on ABC's "This Week." He praised the Iraqi security forces for their professionalism and neutrality during the months of political uncertainty that followed elections earlier this year.

Odierno added, however, that it is critical for Iraq to form a government after five months of delay, warning that insurgents will try to take advantage of the political vacuum.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed the end of combat operations, but he reiterated that America’s involvement in rebuilding Iraq will continue. “We are ending the war … but we are not ending our work in Iraq,” Crowley said. The U.S. military said some 56,000 American soldiers remain in Iraq, still 6,000 short of the end-of-August target set by President Barack Obama.

Iraqi police and military will take over the maintenance of security in the country, while the remaining U.S. forces will play an “advise-and-assist role,” according to a statement by Obama.