BAGHDAD: The number of American soldiers in Iraq has dropped below 50,000 ahead of an August 31 declaration of an end to combat operations, the US military said Tuesday.
“US military force levels in Iraq are below 50,000,” it said in a statement. “US military forces will transition to Operation New Dawn, effective September 1, 2010.”
The last American brigade designated as a “combat brigade” left Iraq and crossed into Kuwait on Thursday. All remaining US brigades in Iraq are labelled “advise and assist” brigades.
Shortly after coming into office in 2009, President Barack Obama pledged that the US would end combat operations in Iraq by the end of August, at which point troop figures would drop below 50,000.
That is less than a third of the peak figure of around 170,000 during “the surge” of 2007, when Iraq was in the midst of a brutal insurgency.
All American soldiers must leave Iraq by the end of 2011, under a bilateral security pact.
The withdrawal comes amid a political impasse in Iraq which has seen no new government formed since parliamentary elections in March, which resulted in no single party winning a majority. —AFP
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