U.S. pulls last combat troops out of Iraq
U.S. troops in armoured vehicles prepare to leave Iraq on August 17.
Seven-and-a-half years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, the last American combat troops have left the country.
According to BBC News and the Guardian, the 4th Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division crossed the border into Kuwait this morning (August 19).
Still, 56,000 armed, “non-combat” troops remain in Iraq.
Six thousand of those troops are slated to leave by August 31, the withdrawal deadline set by U.S. president Barack Obama.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. State Department plans to more than double the number of private security contractors it employs in Iraq, up to as many as 7,000.
More than 4,400 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.
At the peak of the Iraq war, initiated by former president George W. Bush, the U.S. had 150,000 soldiers in the country.
According to the Iraq Body Count project, between 97,267 and 106,146 civilians have been killed since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.
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Stories of what happened inside hospitals across the country when they all lost power in 2003. Musings on how through 2004-05, morning suicide bombings became so common that the journalists living in Baghdad learned to sleep through them, resulting in them missing stories. Etc.
Highly recommend it. Here's an adapted excerpt.
And in a war zone there's a lot of undocumented deaths.