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Updating: 17:17, 15 December 2011 Thursday
US military officially ends occupation in Iraq
U.S. soldiers rolled up the flag of American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-coloured sleeve in a brief ceremony, symbolically ending devastating invasion.
The U.S. military officially ended its occupation in Iraq on Thursday, rolling up its flag at a low-key ceremony with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine bloody years after the invasion that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and ousted Saddam Hussein.
U.S. soldiers rolled up the flag of American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-coloured sleeve in a brief ceremony, symbolically ending devastating invasion.
The remaining 4,000 American troops will withdraw by the end of the year, leaving behind a country still tackling a weakened insurgency, sectarian tensions and political uncertainty.
In Falluja, several thousand Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal on Wednesday, some burning U.S. flags and waving pictures of dead relatives.
U.S. troops were supposed to stay on as part of a deal to train the Iraqi armed forces but talks over immunity from prosecution for American soldiers fell apart.
Memories of U.S. abuses, arrests and killings still haunt many Iraqis and the question of legal protection from prosecution looked too sensitive to push through parliament.
At the height of the war, 170,000 American soldiers occupied more than 500 bases across the country.
Only around 150 U.S. soldiers will remain after Dec. 31 attached to the huge U.S. Embassy near the Tigris River. Civilian contractors will take on the task of training Iraqi forces on U.S. military hardware.
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