Obama announces end to US war in Iraq
US President Barack Obama declares a full withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year, as agreed in a security pact signed with Baghdad under his predecessor George W. Bush.
Obama announced the decision on Friday to end months of speculation about whether the US would retain its military presence in Iraq beyond 2011.
”After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” he told reporters after a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The US president offered assurances that the two leaders had agreed on the decision.
Washington declared the end of the combat operations in August, but some 45,000 US troops stayed in Iraq for 'training and advising' Iraqi security forces.
The US and its allies invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’ s regime possessed weapons of mass destructions.
No such weapons were ever found in the country.
Source: presstv.ir
