US troops to pull out of Iraq by 2012

WASHINGTON, Saturday

US President Barack Obama said all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, ending a long war which cleaved deep political divides and estranged the United States from its allies.

The decision, announced Friday, came after Iraq failed to agree to legal immunity for a small residual force that Washington had hoped to keep in the country to train the army and counter the influence of neighbouring Iran, officials said.

After nearly nine years, the deaths of more than 4,400 US troops, tens of thousands of Iraqis and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, Obama said the last American soldier would leave with his head held high.

Unpopular war

“Today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” Obama said at the White House.

“Our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays,” said Obama, who rose to power in opposing the unpopular war and pledged as a presidential candidate to withdraw all US military personnel.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Obama added that his decision to pull all US troops out of Iraq by the end of the year and the death of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were reminders of “renewed American leadership in the world.”

Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, arguing that its then leader Saddam Hussein was endangering the world with weapons of mass destruction programs. After Saddam was toppled, such arms were never found.

(AFP)