US mission in Iraq ends

Aug 31, 2010 |

Baghdad, Aug. 31: The US military was preparing to end its Iraq combat mission on Tuesday as Vice-President, Mr Joe Biden, met the war-torn nation’s leaders in Baghdad after seven years of fighting that cost thousands of lives.

A major troop pullout in past months has left less than 50,000 American soldiers in Iraq while a simultaneous surge in car bombings and shootings, many of which have targeted local security forces, has raised security concerns.

The US President, Mr Barack Obama, was due to mark the symbolic end of combat operations in a speech from the Oval Office at 8 pm (local time), after visiting a base in Texas where he was scheduled to meet recently returned Iraq veterans. More than 4,400 US troops have died in the country since 2003, a number that is dwarfed by the estimated 1,00,000 civilians deaths.

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